Once there were US President and Head of the Justice Department: Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions
Photo: AP
"Rogue states" is how the government of the United States has sometimes called dictatorships in the past few decades, whose governments subjugate their own people and which, in Washington's view, pose a threat to world peace.
Now the Democrat Nancy Pelosi chooses a similar formulation, but not for the events in a foreign country, a distant dictatorship, but during the presidency of Donald Trump in the USA itself. The US Congress will be "rogue actions" - investigate the Justice Department under Trump did.
Earlier it became known that Trump's judicial officers had forced the Apple company to divulge the communications data of two high-ranking Democrats.
Affected were the two members of the secret service committee in the House of Representatives, the current chairman Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, as the New York Times reported.
Data from their employees and family members were also requested, including that of a minor.
Barr and Sessions are said to have to testify under oath
According to the newspaper, prosecutors from the Justice Department gained access to communication metadata of the two Democrats and their entourage in 2017 and early 2018.
Now the spying action against the Democrats is to be investigated by two bodies.
In addition to an internal review by the Justice Department itself, Congress is to take the case under the microscope.
The agency had been led by Trump confidants William Barr and Jeff Sessions and was repeatedly criticized for putting Trump's personal and political interests above the law.
During Trump's presidency, the ministry "did rogue work in many ways," Pelosi told CNN.
The internal investigation by the ministry's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is important, but not a substitute for an investigation by Congress, according to Pelosi.
The point is to force Barr and Sessions "under oath" to make statements.
She found it hard to imagine that neither of them knew anything about what was going on.
Barr had stated that he had no recollection of what had happened.
beb / Reuters