Federal prosecutors skirted their own rules when they seized phone records from reporters while investigating congressional leaks to the media about the probe into suspected Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to a watchdog report released Tuesday.
The Department of Justice’s inspector general also said prosecutors cast a wide net for information from congressional staffers. They often sought records simply because the staffers were involved in procuring classified information. The department used nondisclosure tools to keep staffers in the dark about the search for records and the nature of the inquiry.
The report covers Crossfire Hurricane, a moniker for the FBI investigation in 2016 and 2017 that explored whether the Trump campaign was coordinating, wittingly or not, with Russia against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
It ultimately fed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Donald Trump said the investigation tainted his upset victory and amounted to spying on his campaign.
Mr. Trump is returning to the White House on a pledge to clean house at the Justice Department. He has nominated Pam Bondi as attorney general and chosen Kash Patel to lead the FBI if he can nudge Director Christopher A. Wray out of the bureau.
Mr. Patel has suggested that the incoming administration should pursue media members who “lied about American citizens” and that too many conspirators oppose Mr. Trump in government.
Mr. Patel was reportedly one of the staffers whose records were taken. He worked for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican who left Congress in 2022.
The prosecutors also sought information from Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff, California Democrats, and from more than 40 congressional staffers representing both parties.
“We found that, in most instances, the inclusion of the staffers in the subject pools for the federal criminal investigations was based on the fact that they had been provided or gained access to the classified information pursuant to their job duties, which includes conducting oversight of the executive branch, close in time to the publication of the information by the news media,” the report said.
The report suggests the Justice Department was not malicious or vindictive but guilty of being overly broad or using general language to justify its record-seeking.
The inspector general detailed a series of failures from 2017 through 2020 when the Justice Department sought records from reporters at CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post related to leaks of classified information in 2017.
The department failed to convene the News Media Review Committee to assess attempts to pry into records, a process known as compulsory process authorization requests.
In some cases, the prosecutors didn’t obtain approval from 2019-2020 Attorney General William Barr for nondisclosure orders that prevented congressional lawmakers, congressional staffers, reporters and newsroom leaders from learning about the use of the compulsory process to seek records on leaks and sources.
The inspector general’s office said it was “troubled” to learn about the lapses after the Justice Department revised its news media rules in 2014 and 2015. It revised its policies again in 2022.
“We believe it is a matter of critical importance to the reputation of DOJ and to the legitimate interests of the news media that, having again revised its News Media Policy in response to significant criticism, DOJ make every effort to ensure full and exacting compliance with its new policy in the future,” the inspector general said.
In 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland outlined several scenarios under which the Justice Department could obtain reporters’ records, including journalists suspected of working for agents of a foreign power or terrorist organizations, journalists under investigation for unrelated activities or the procurement of information through criminal methods such as breaking and entering.
The Justice Department, under Democratic and Republican leadership, has struggled to balance its determination to protect press freedom and safeguard national security secrets.
President Obama’s first attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., announced revised guidelines for leak investigations after an outcry over actions considered to be aggressively intrusive into press freedom, including the secret seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.
Mr. Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced a crackdown on leaks in 2017 after a series of disclosures during the investigation into Russian election interference.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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