The Justice Department has strengthened internal reviews for when it seeks the electronic records of members of Congress and congressional staffers as part of a leak investigation, including notification to the attorney general and other leadership, a watchdog reported Tuesday.
A DOJ Office of the Inspector General review found that two members of Congress and 43 people who were congressional staffers at the time had their records sought, with the goal of identifying the sources of leaked classified information that was included in news articles in 2017.
Both Members of Congress were Democrats, 21 of the staffers worked in Democratic positions, 20 worked in Republican positions and 2 worked in nonpartisan positions, the report found. And non-disclosure orders prevented the members of Congress from learning about the efforts to seek their records.
