It is outrageous that the Department of Justice may have used a criminal investigation as pretext to spy on journalists, Members of Congress, their families, and Congressional staff. Sadly, after four years of Donald Trump’s corrupting influence at the Department of Justice, we have every reason to believe that these reports are true. Indeed, my concern at this hour is that the corruption may run deeper than has already been reported. We know that the Department, under Attorneys General Sessions and Barr’s leadership, tried to secretly seize data from the accounts of these reporters and of my colleagues on the Intelligence Committee—but we do not yet know how these two efforts were connected, or whether there were additional targets of this gross abuse of power.
I am grateful that Inspector General Horowitz has committed to investigating both cases. His work here will be invaluable. An investigation by his office is, however, no substitute for swift action by the Department of Justice.
The Committee has been in communication with DOJ, and we have made our position clear. The Department has a very short window to make a clean break from the Trump era on this matter. We expect the Department to provide a full accounting of these cases, and we expect the Attorney General to hold the relevant personnel accountable for their conduct. If the Department does not make substantial progress towards these two goals, then we on the Judiciary Committee will have no choice but to step in and do the work ourselves.”