Former United States President Donald Trump during a press conference on July 22, 2020.LEAH MILLIS / Reuters
In the early months of Donald Trump's term (2017-2021), the Justice Department secretly obtained recordings of phone calls and attempted to access emails from journalists from
The Washington Post
reporting on Russia's role in the 2016 elections, as published by the newspaper itself this Friday.
Information about the alleged espionage has been referred to journalists by officials of the current Administration.
In three letters dated May 3, the Department of Justice addresses three journalists from the newspaper -two of them active, plus another who is no longer part of the staff-, to whom it "hereby notifies that In accordance with legal procedure, the United States Department of Justice has received records of communications associated with the following telephone numbers during the period between April 15 and July 31, 2017 ”.
The list details the private, office and mobile phone numbers of the three spied journalists.
Trump had assumed the presidency on January 20 of that year.
More information
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Cameron Barr, acting executive director of the newspaper, has expressed concern about the scope of the news.
“We are seriously concerned about this use of the government's power to access journalists' communications.
The Department of Justice should immediately clarify the reasons for its interference in the information activity of journalists who only did their work, an activity protected by the First Amendment, ”which establishes the right to freedom of expression.
The alleged interference of the Kremlin in the electoral process that in 2016 gave Trump the victory against all odds was a shadow that haunted him during his tenure. Investigated by the FBI, Congressional committees and a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, the plot originated with the theft of Democratic Party emails that WikiLeaks distributed before the 2016 elections with the supposed objective of favoring Trump, and in the alleged collusion of the Republican's environment with the cyberattack. Prosecutor Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy between Trump and Moscow, but left open the possibility that the Republican did commit a crime of obstruction of justice, by trying to hinder the investigations.The alleged existence of a plot between Trump and the Kremlin was repeatedly described by the Republican as a witch hunt.
Communication companies and First Amendment advocates criticize the Administration's practice of confiscating journalists' recordings in an attempt to identify the sources of leaks, as they believe the collection of critical information has begun.
The penultimate episode of seizure of recordings occurred in 2018, when the Justice Department accessed the communications of a journalist in an investigation into her sources.
The content of the information also revolved around the Russian plot.
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