The Department of Justice secretly obtained phone records from two Democratic members of Congress and more than three dozen staffers during Donald Trump’s first administration, according to a new report from the agency’s watchdog.
In 2017 and 2018, Trump’s Justice Department collected phone records and text message logs belonging to 43 congressional staffers and two House Democrats in a sweep that “risks chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote in his 91-page report that was published on Tuesday.
