New report shows how Trump-era DOJ tracked Congress members' messages
Inspector Generalʼs report uncovers wide-ranging surveillance of Congress staff during Trump administration. Investigation scope turned out bigger than anyone knew before
The DOJʼs tracking of Congress communications during Donald Trumpʼs time as president was more far-reaching than first thought - a new report shows
A just-released review by Inspector General Michael Horowitz exposes how Trump-era justice officials used sneaky methods to get info from Congress members staffers and news-people (while looking into government info leaks). The report came out on 12/10/24; showing way more congressional workers were watched than anyone knew about
The document details how the department checked phone records and other data: looking at both House and Senate staff communications. While Horowitz didnt find any broken laws his findings show questionable choices made during these secret investigations. The whole thing happened about 4-5 years ago when officials were trying to stop sensitive info from getting out to public
The inspector generalʼs office found that justice officials used special court orders to get communications data - a practice that raised eyebrows among legal experts. Department heads at that time pushed hard to find who was sharing classified stuff; making their net wider than needed
