The US Justice Department below former President Donald Trump subpoenaed Apple for knowledge from the accounts of at the least two Democrats on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in an try to search out out who was behind leaks of categorised data, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
The information of at the least a dozen folks tied to the committee had been seized in 2017 and early 2018, together with these of Representative Adam Schiff, then the panel’s prime Democrat and now its chairman, the Times mentioned.
The paper cited unnamed committee officers and two different folks briefed on the inquiry for the report.
Prosecutors below Jeff Sessions, the primary lawyer basic in Trump’s Republican administration, had been in search of to search out the sources behind media studies about contacts between Trump associates and Russia, the Times mentioned.
“Ultimately, the data and other evidence did not tie the committee to the leaks, and investigators debated whether they had hit a dead end and some even discussed closing the inquiry,” the paper mentioned.
Apple turned over solely metadata and account data, not photographs, emails or different content material, the Times mentioned.
The Justice Department additionally seized Apple knowledge from the accounts of committee aides and relations, the Times mentioned. It didn’t identify every other member of the House beside Schiff.
William Barr, lawyer basic in Trump’s latter years in workplace, revived the investigation, it mentioned.
Schiff mentioned in an announcement to Reuters that the Justice Department had knowledgeable the committee final month that the investigation was closed.
“I believe more answers are needed, which is why I believe the Inspector General should investigate this and other cases that suggest the weaponization of law enforcement by a corrupt president,” Schiff mentioned.
In an announcement to Reuters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, known as the information “harrowing” and mentioned she supported Schiff’s name for an investigation.
The Times mentioned the Justice Department “secured a gag order on Apple that expired this year, according to a person familiar with the inquiry, so lawmakers did not know they were being investigated until Apple informed them last month.”
The Justice Department and Apple didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
