Republican Chairman Slams Trump DOJ for ‘Spying’ on Congressmen and Staff — Including Kash Patel: ‘Grave Constitutional Violation’
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) slammed the Department of Justice for “spying” on congressmen and congressional staff during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, calling it a “grave constitutional violation” on CNN Tuesday.
CNN reported earlier in the day on a damning inspector general report:
The Justice Department secretly obtained phone records from two members of Congress and 43 staffers – including Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI – during sweeping leak investigations during Trump’s first term, according to a watchdog report released Tuesday.
Patel and the two members of Congress are not named in the report, but two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that Patel was targeted along with Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell. Patel was a staffer for the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee at the time, and Schiff has since been elected to the Senate and took office Monday.
In an interview with Pamela Brown, Turner argued, “This report lays out outrageous behavior by the Department of Justice, where members of Congress and staff of of the Intelligence Committee, the committee that I chair, had phone records and email records that were accessed by the Department of Justice without court review. Now, this affects, as the report says, by Inspector General [Michael] Horowitz, the constitutional authorities and the individual constitutional rights of the individuals that were impacted.”
“The courts didn’t even know the Department of Justice was accessing emails and phone records of members of Congress and their staff merely because they had access to classified information. This is a grave constitutional violation,” he continued, while calling for a legislative remedy to these processes.
“It appears from this report that the attorney general at the time, Jeff Sessions, didn’t know about this,” observed Brown. “Donald Trump, he was president. But as we know –”
“Pamela, you also have to remember, Jeff Sessions was recused from many of the Crossfire Hurricane and Russia hoax investigations that were going at the time,” interjected Turner. “So it’s not surprising that some of these, he would not have been involved in. But the report does indicate that by processes at the time, the Department of Justice did not require that the attorney general be be notified.”
“How significant is it that Trump’s pick to lead the FBI was ensnared in this, Kash Patel?” followed-up Brown.
“Well, it really shows that he understands the weaponization that has happened of the FBI, the Department of Justice against Americans, and really against our own government,” answered Turner. “I mean, here you have the executive branch, in effect, spying on Congress. That weaponization goes right to the heart of really what we expect of the oversight processes.”
“This was Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. Kash Patel, for his part, has said he would go after members of the media, either criminally or civilly. Should this be a warning to Kash Patel about how the DOJ and FBI wield their power moving forward?” asked Brown.
“Well, absolutely. Kash Patel, who you know, I have great regard for, certainly understands the aspects of of the Deep State, and that is those individuals who who really look at the workings of government, the weaponization of government ,and use them to both go after, I think, the workings of government,” replied Turner. “Here we see members of Congress, their staff that were targeted. And certainly we see both, you know, civilians and individuals who at times are targeted in ways that their constitutional rights and their individual rights are impacted. Here with this report, we have the inspector general specifically saying that the constitutional authorities of Congress were impacted.”
Watch above via CNN.
