The Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently under investigation after Republicans from the Senate Judiciary Committee accused the agency of spying on Congressional staffers.
Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and ex-Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley are now demanding the department turn over documents related to the allegations. Their request was made in a letter that was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
DOJ Under Investigation
The Republicans said that they had a deep concern regarding recent revelations that the DOJ engaged in a campaign of covert surveillance of the personal communications of attorneys advising congressional oversight committees.
It added that the decision by unelected government bureaucrats to investigate the elected congressional representatives and congressional staffers to hold them accountable is what they said an attack on democracy.
The letter comes a week after House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan launched a similar investigation into the Department of Justice. He requested information on spying allegations from the agency, Google parent company Alphabet, Apple, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, as per the Washington Examiner.
In an October request, Virginia-based whistleblower firm Empower Oversight said that former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to subpoena staffers on the House Intelligence Committee in 2018.
These allegedly include then-senior aide Kash Patel who was later the acting defense secretary under former President Donald Trump. The letter penned by Cruz and his colleagues cited a story in mid-October where the Federalist outlet claimed that it independently confirmed a former staffer on the House Intelligence Committee was notified of a subpoena. This was allegedly issued in September 2017 by a Washington D.C., grand jury.
Empower Oversight's request from October said that Google handed over a "redacted copy" of the subpoena made by DOJ founder Jason Foster. It allegedly compelled the tech giant to release customer or subscriber information as well as a variety of personal information.
Allegedly Spying on Congressional Staffers
Cruz and his colleagues further noted that there were instances where the personal records of a House staffer employed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) were targeted as part of the campaign, according to Newsweek.
Congressional Democrats have also expressed their concern over their private communications being targeted by the DOJ. These include California Rep. Adam Schiff who called for an investigation into the Trump Justice Department in June 2021. His request was made after learning that a subpoena was sent by the agency to Apple in search of his phone records.
The Republican senators are also requesting for the names of the officials at the DOJ who may have drafted or approved the subpoenas in question. Their letter noted that the extensive and far-reaching effort to use grand jury subpoenas to gather personal records of congressional staffers is "absolutely unacceptable."
This echoed the remarks made in a press release at the time when Jordan was calling for an investigation into the DOJ. The Republican said that such efforts offend the fundamental separation of powers principles as well as Congress' constitutional authority to conduct oversight of the department, said the Judiciary House Committee.
