DOJ subpoenaed phone and email logs of Hill staffers investigating Crossfire Hurricane misconduct.

While House and Senate oversight committees were investigating the Department of⁤ Justice and the FBI for their role in the Russia-collusion hoax, the DOJ subpoenaed the private phone and email logs of multiple congressional staffers, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request ⁢filed Tuesday reveals. The executive branch’s targeting of staffers assisting ‌with congressional​ oversight of the⁢ DOJ and FBI represents a dangerous intrusion into the legislative branch’s functioning — and one that demands answers and‌ an ⁢accounting.

On Tuesday, ​the⁤ Virginia-based whistleblower firm Empower⁣ Oversight dispatched a⁣ letter to‌ the attorney general and a slew of other DOJ officials,​ including the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. That letter detailed how the organization’s founder, Jason⁣ Foster, learned last week from a notice provided by Google that⁤ the DOJ had ​subpoenaed records of his ​Google Voice telephone number. The subpoena issued to⁢ Google ​required the tech giant to‍ provide all telephone connection records and text message logs for Foster’s private Google account from Dec. 1, 2016, to May ​1, 2017.

At that time, as the Empower Oversight letter ‌explained, Foster served as the chief investigative counsel ⁣to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley. In that role, he directed congressional oversight into misconduct at the Justice Department. The DOJ likewise subpoenaed other House ​and Senate staffers⁢ working with oversight committees — both ⁣Republicans and Democrats — according to Empower Oversight.

The Federalist has independently confirmed that ‍at least one staffer on the House Permanent Select⁣ Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) received the same notice from Google of the subpoena, ⁤which was issued by a⁣ D.C. ‌grand jury on Sept. 12, 2017.

That date proves significant because ‌former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had⁢ reportedly threatened to subpoena the ⁤personal records of ​HPSCI ⁤staffers during a heated January 2018 closed-door meeting concerning oversight requests served on the DOJ. But based ⁣on ​the Google notice‌ sent out last week to the subpoenas’ targets, the DOJ had ⁤already executed that threat.

The Empower ‍Oversight letter takes to⁢ task⁣ the‌ DOJ for undertaking what appears to be ​“an extensive and far-reaching ‍effort⁤ to use grand jury subpoenas and perhaps other means to gather the personal communications records of innocent congressional staffers and their families with little or no legitimate predicate.” Here, Empower ⁣Oversight highlighted‌ the substantial constitutional issues raised by the DOJ’s subpoenas, which targeted not merely a separate branch of government but also attorneys providing‍ legal advice regarding congressional oversight of the very DOJ that subpoenaed the records.

Clearly foreseeing ⁣the excuse the DOJ will⁢ likely give⁢ for subpoenaing the staffers’‌ personal records — namely the need​ to uncover the individual who‍ leaked classified information to the press — the ‌Empower Oversight letter also launched a preemptive strike to that rationale, writing:

If the only reason the Justice Department targeted the‍ communications‍ of these congressional ⁢attorneys was their⁣ access to classified information ‍that was ⁤later⁤ published ​by the media, ‍it raises the question of⁢ whether the Department also subpoenaed the personal phone‍ and email records⁣ of every Executive ‍Branch official ‌who had ​access to the same information. If not, ‌then the entire exercise looks more like ⁤a pretext to ⁣gather intelligence on those conducting oversight of the Department rather than a legitimate classified leak inquiry.

To obtain answers ⁢to ‌these questions, ‍the Empower Oversight letter ended with a FOIA request for all grand-jury ⁢subpoenas issued related ​to the same investigation that resulted in the targeting of Foster and other legislative staffers, as well as any grand-jury subpoenas issued for Rosenstein and other DOJ officials. Empower Oversight also requested ‌copies of⁤ communications between the D.C. ⁢U.S. ‌attorney’s⁢ office⁤ and Rosenstein’s office discussing‍ the possibility of subpoenaing communications data from‌ Verizon for official House and Senate cell phones. ⁣Additionally, the FOIA request sought communications between members of the press⁣ and Rosenstein and‌ other DOJ officials concerning a variety of people and topics, including Michael Flynn, Carter Page,‌ Joe Pientka, Bill Priestap, Grassley,‌ Foster, congressional oversight requests, ⁢and the Crossfire‌ Hurricane investigation.

While these FOIA requests ‍may‍ uncover a few details, the federal government⁢ rarely complies with ‌its statutory requirements without judicial intervention and, even then, often succeeds in secreting information from the public‌ by relying on broadly worded FOIA ‌exemptions. The House ⁤Oversight and Judiciary Committees, however, aren’t hampered by the limitations of FOIA, and given that the DOJ⁤ targeted ⁢House staffers as well as Senate staffers, the majority-controlled House ‍should⁣ seek the same documents directly from the DOJ.

For that matter, so ​should the⁣ Democrat-controlled Senate, as the executive branch’s offense was to the ⁢legislative branch ‌as a whole, not just to Republicans.