ROYAL PALM BEACH — Timothy J. Wall posted on social media that he wanted to kill people — particularly children. The unemployed carpenter had displayed increasingly paranoid behavior for days. And Thursday morning, he appeared to be looking to bring his Facebook insanity to reality.
Wall found his victims at 11:35 a.m. Thursday, killing two strangers: a 69-year-old grandmother and her toddler grandson, nearly 2. They died while doing an everyday chore in one of the most communal of places: a Publix Super Market in Royal Palm Beach.
A former relative of Wall, the sister of his ex-wife, told The Palm Beach Post on Friday that the 55-year-old Acreage resident suffered from schizophrenia and that her sister had previously reached out to law enforcement for help.
But Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw blasted the ex-wife and anybody who knew of Wall’s unhinged social media raging but who had failed to notify authorities.
“The real sad part of this, other than the fact that people are dead, is that there was a chance this could have been stopped,” Bradshaw said. “You know why? The reason is, he’s on Facebook. He has said, ‘I want to kill people and children.'”
Gunman’s path to shootings brought him to shopping plaza hours earlier
The sheriff’s office held a news conference Friday, offering a timeline of the events that led to the shootings.
Wall drove to the The Crossroads shopping plaza, at Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach boulevards, on a red scooter. Surveillance cameras caught him lurking in Walgreens and then again in Publix earlier in the morning, when he was apparently spooked off by a sheriff’s deputy buying groceries.
Wall entered the Publix, holding a golf putter, using it as a walking stick. He found his innocent victims in the produce aisle at 11:29 a.m.
Surveillance-camera video shows Wall watching victims across the produce section.
Wall then moved to the shopping cart and killed the child with one shot. The grandmother then instinctively attacked Wall. She almost had the upper hand when his gun jammed, but he pushed her down on the ground and shot her, Bradshaw said at the news conference.
Thirty people were inside the Publix at the time of the shooting.
The first sheriff’s deputy arrived three minutes after the attack and found all three people dead. Wall had shot himself in the head, sheriff’s officials said.
The names of the victims have not been released in accordance with a 2018 amendment to the state constitution, which allows crime victims or their families to withhold their names from public reports. It is modeled on California’s Marsy’s Law.
Bradshaw said if the sheriff’s office had been alerted to Wall’s mental deterioration, then deputies could have confiscated any weapon in his possession. He said Wall warned those around him with his behavior and his postings on social media.
“Obviously, there was some mental” instability, Bradshaw said. “If it sounds like I am angry, it’s because I am.”
Gunman had filed for bankruptcy, been evicted
Wall worked as a carpenter for a temp agency, had been legally evicted from his ex-wife’s home and had filed for bankruptcy, records show. He appeared to be a vagabond of late, living at motel efficiencies in the weeks before the shooting, records show.
The owner of the construction temp service who would sometimes hire Wall said the carpenter came off as “kind of off” but was one of his most timid workers.
He did hear from other workers that Wall told them he was living in a shed at one point. Wall also said he was playing the stock market and wouldn’t need to do construction jobs anymore.
The employer, who asked that his name not be published, said he called Wall for a job recently and that Wall told him, “No, I’m going through some stuff. I can’t really work.”
Maia Knight of Wellington is the sister of Wall’s ex-wife, Monica Sandra Wall. The Walls married in 2003 and divorced in July 2017.
“He had mental issues. He wasn’t taking care of himself,” Knight said. “My sister was going to the courthouse, going to police, telling everyone he needs help. My sister was trying to help him but didn’t know how.”
She said Timothy Wall wasn’t getting the help he needed for his mental illness, which she said was schizophrenia.
“He wasn’t really taking the medicine, and he had alcohol problems at one point,” she said. “He didn’t even want to help himself. My sister would say, ‘I can’t tell a grown man what to do do if he doesn’t want to do it himself.'”
The couple has a 14-year-old daughter. “She has been going through a tough time, seeing him like that,” Knight said.
A Palm Beach County circuit judge had allowed Timothy Wall to live in his marital home in Royal Palm Beach for a few months. But in May 2019, Monica Sandra Wall evicted him, court records show.
“She did evict him because he kept going back to her home and she was going to cops and getting no help,” Knight said.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond a Post email asking if Wall’s ex-wife had reached out previously for help with her husband’s mental illness.
Latest violent altercation in a Palm Beach County public space
Leah Tyron, a Royal Pam Beach resident, said her cousin spoke to the sheriff’s office.
“That guy had plans to do this before he even got here,” Tyron said. “He had the plan that he was going to do something to himself, and just happened to take somebody out with him.”
The tragedy is the second recent shooting at a retailer that is part of the everyday routine of residents in Palm Beach County.
Samuel Rossetti of Palm Springs was shot dead while in the drive-thru line of a Lake Worth Beach Starbucks in April following a confrontation with the car in front of him. The driver of that vehicle, Justin Ray Boersma, is facing a first-degree murder charge.
“(The shooting) makes me very cautious to have altercations with people,” Tyron said. “Here I would say something in the past if someone upset me. Now I probably won’t, because of the fact that Florida doesn’t take care of people with mental illness.”
Sarah Brown, a Loxahatchee resident and a hairstylist at Festive Cuts Beauty Salon in the Publix plaza, said customers and Publix employees took refuge at her business after the shooting.
“It was a normal day. I just had a consultation with my client, went to the back room to mix her color,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Then all of a sudden like a barrel of monkeys about 15 people — two even with carts ran into our small salon screaming ‘Active Shooter! Everyone get in lock the doors get away from the windows!!!’ “
She had the salon’s receptionist hold the door open as people rushed in, many of them panicked and hysterical.
“Unfortunately a couple people saw it happen and I can’t even imagine how horrific that was to witness,” she said.
The Publix is expected to reopen Saturday. Customers returned Friday morning to collect items they left behind. A tearful Anay Hernandez said the shooting makes her fear for the safety of her children.
“I don’t feel safe to go anywhere with my kids anymore,” she said. “I wanted to come by yesterday because I have medication in the pharmacy but, for some reason, I didn’t come by. … I was supposed to be here around 11.”
Brown, the hair stylist, said the shooting was a reminder that more stringent gun control was needed in the U.S. She said she is a gun owner.
“It needs to be harder to get a gun. I’m sorry, but it needs to be,” Brown said. “It won’t solve everything; I understand that. But it can solve or prevent some incidents like these.”
For Brown, she thought that it could have easily been her or any other unsuspecting member of the public in the Publix.
“The panic on these peoples’ faces also made me emotional since I’m extremely empathic,” she said. “That could’ve been me and my son.”
Deadliest recent shootings in Palm Beach County
June 2015: Greenacres grandmother Nilda Sheffield fatally shoots her daughter Elizabeth Flores and her daughter’s two children, 2-year-old Sofia Chiddo, and 7-year-old Xavier Neff.
September 2010: Patrick Dell burst into his estranged wife’s home in Riviera Beach and kills Natasha Whyte-Dell and four of her seven children. A fifth child was shot in the neck but survived.
January 2010: Wellington mortgage broker Neal Jacobson fatally shoots his wife and 7-year-old twin sons, Eric and Joshua.
November 2009: Paul Michael Merhige kills four family members at a Thanksgiving dinner in Jupiter.
September 2002: Michael Roman executes five family members in a Lake Worth home.
California officials have selected an alternate winner from last week’s COVID-19 vaccine lottery who lives in Sacramento County.
Fifteen winners were selected last week to each win $50,000 but officials had trouble locating two of the recipients.
| VIDEO BELOW | 17-year-old talks about winning $50,000 California vaccine lottery
After several attempts at reaching the winners, who were from San Diego and Santa Clara counties, the state moved on to two alternates, California Department of Public Health spokesperson Sami Gallegos said.
Those winners live in Monterey County and Sacramento County.
“Contact with the alternates began immediately through phone, text and email and the state has been in touch with the Monterey winner,” Gallegos said. “The two originally drawn were notified in very explicit terms of Thursday’s deadline by which they would have forfeited their cash prize.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the lottery drawings to reward people who have already been vaccinated.
The state is also offering cash incentives to encourage more people in the state to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The $116.5 million vaccine incentive program, known as Vax for the Win, creates two money pots:
$100 million in $50 prepaid or grocery cards for 2 million people who went and received a vaccine after the incentive program was announced in late May. About 1.25 million $50 incentive cards remain, as of Friday, officials said.
$16.5 million in cash prizes for 40 winners
The cash prizes are available to those who are at least partially vaccinated.
For its coverage of the police killing of George Floyd, and the landscape-altering racial reckoning that fanned out across the world from Minneapolis in its aftermath, the staff of the Star Tribune on Friday was named winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News.
The Pulitzer Board called the Star Tribune’s coverage of Floyd’s death under the knee of former police officer Derek Chauvin and captured on a cellphone by teenager Darnella Frazier, “urgent, authoritative and nuanced.”
Frazier received a Pulitzer special citation for her bravery in capturing video of Floyd’s death at 38th and Chicago. That video swiftly changed the narrative of what happened that evening, going viral and sparking protests both locally and internationally.
Star Tribune journalists covered the rage in Minneapolis, where protesters burned buildings including a police station.
A Hennepin County jury in April returned two murder convictions against Chauvin.
“Our staff poured its heart and soul into covering this story. It has been such a traumatic and tragic time for our community,” Star Tribune Editor Rene Sanchez said in a statement following the announcement. “We felt that our journalism had to capture the full truth and depth of this pain and the many questions it renewed about Minnesota and the country.”
The Pulitzer Prize is one of journalism’s most prestigious honors. Friday’s prize is the fifth for the Star Tribune.
Minnesota author Louise Erdrich won for her novel “The Night Watchman,” and Graywolf Press also published the poetry winner, “Postcolonial Love Poem.” The Associated Press and The New York Times each won two Pulitzer Prizes on Friday.
The feature photography prize went to AP’s chief photographer in Spain, Emilio Morenatti, who captured haunting images of an older couple embracing through a plastic sheet, mortuary workers in hazmat gear removing bodies and of people enduring the crisis in isolation.
The breaking news prize for protest coverage was shared by 10 AP photographers. One widely reproduced photograph by Julio Cortez on the night of May 28 in riot-torn Minneapolis shows a lone, silhouetted protester running with an upside-down American flag past a burning liquor store.
The New York Times won its public service prize for pandemic coverage the judges said was “courageous, prescient and sweeping coverage” and “filled the data vacuum” for the general public. Wesley Morris of the Times won for criticism touching on the intersection of race and culture.
The Boston Globe received the investigative reporting Pulitzer for a series demonstrating how poor government oversight imperils road safety. The series detailed how the United States lacks an effective national system to keep track of drivers who commit serious offenses in another state. It also reported how the increasingly deadly trucking industry operates with minimal federal government oversight.
The prize for explanatory reporting was shared by two recipients, including Reuters. Ed Yong of The Atlantic won for a series of deeply reported and accessible articles about the pandemic.
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog announced Friday it would open a review of the records seizures, and Democratic leaders are standing up their own probes. According to the Times, the leak investigation swept up the metadata of the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who has since become its chair, and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, another prominent Trump critic who sits on the panel.
Barr said that while he was attorney general, he was “not aware of any congressman’s records being sought in a leak case.” He added that Trump never encouraged him to zero in on the Democratic lawmakers who reportedly became targets of the former president’s push to unmask leakers of classified information.
Trump “was not aware of who we were looking at in any of the cases,” Barr said. “I never discussed the leak cases with Trump. He didn’t really ask me any of the specifics.”
The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, is launching a separate investigation. The department said on Friday that Horowitz’s review would center on “DOJ’s use of subpoenas and other legal authorities” to obtain records of lawmakers, journalists, and others associated with ongoing investigations into unauthorized leaks.
In a statement on Friday, Schiff applauded the Attorney General for requesting and Inspector General investigation into the matter but said it “will not obviate the need for other forms of oversight and accountability — including public oversight by Congress — and the department must cooperate in that effort as well.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Friday called for Barr and his predecessor as attorney general, former Sen. Jeff Sessions, to appear before the Judiciary panel to answer questions about the secret efforts to subpoena Democrats’ communications metadata. The revelations about the Trump-era leak hunt have raised fresh questions about the former president’s use of his executive powers to monitor members of Congress who were investigating him.
“This appalling politicization of the Department of Justice by Donald Trump and his sycophants must be investigated immediately by both the DOJ Inspector General and Congress,” Schumer and Durbin, the top two Democrats in the upper chamber, said in a joint statement, adding that the Judiciary Committee “will vigorously investigate this abuse of power.”
While Democrats control the panel, a subpoena would require the support of at least one GOP member because the committee is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the committee’s top Republican, indicated on Friday that he opposes a congressional probe.
“Investigations into members of Congress and staff are nothing new, especially for classified leaks,” Grassley said in a statement. “The Justice Department has specific procedures for such sensitive investigations, and the inspector general is already working to determine if they were followed.”
Barr said he installed Osmar Benvenuto in DOJ’s National Security Division in February 2020 to try to revive the leak investigations after Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, recommended him to Barr as “a very experienced prosecutor [who] could quickly sort out which of any of these cases merited further investigative steps and what could be done to bring them to resolution.”
“I was getting criticized by Cabinet members and members of the Intelligence Community about the department not having done anything on these leak cases, so I wanted to make sure they were being pursued,” Barr said.
When the subpoenas reportedly went out, Rod Rosenstein was the deputy attorney general. John Demers became the head of DOJ’s National Security Division, which handles leak probes, in February of 2018. Rosenstein has since left the department for private practice; Demers is still heading the National Security Division.
Mary McCord, a career attorney, headed the National Security Division before Demers’ Senate confirmation.
“All I can say is that any investigation involving an elected official would be considered a sensitive matter that would need high-level approval at the department,” she told POLITICO when reached for comment.
Both Schiff and Swalwell have been among Trump’s most vocal critics, and the former president frequently went after them on Twitter. Trump’s Justice Department sought communications records for Intelligence panel staffers and family members, including a minor, according to the Times.
Trump himself tweeted repeatedly that he believed Schiff was breaking the law by leaking classified material. The president’s missives would have presented major challenges for any prosecutor trying to bring charges against the lawmakers.
“Congressman Adam Schiff, who spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking, should be forced to resign from Congress!” he tweeted on March 28, 2019. Twitter has since removed Trump’s account, and his tweets are archived separately.
But an unlikely pro-Trump ally came to House Democrats’ defense on Friday, as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — himself facing scrutiny from federal prosecutors in a sex trafficking probe — responded that “DOJ has a very nasty tendency to target its critics, Republican and Democrat.”
“The Schiff story reminded me of the DOJ’s threats to use criminal process against House staff exposing their misdeeds,” Gaetz said in a statement. “I stand against all of it, no matter how much I personally dislike Schiff.”
Federal officials are reviewing nearly 800 cases of rare heart problems following immunization with the coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, according to data presented at a vaccine safety meeting on Thursday.
Not all of the cases are likely to be verified or related to vaccines, and experts believe the benefits of immunization far outweigh the risk of these rare complications. But the reports have worried some researchers. More than half of the heart problems were reported in people ages 12 to 24, while the same age group accounted for only 9 percent of the millions of doses administered.
“We clearly have an imbalance there,” said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a vaccine expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who presented the data. Advisers to the agency will meet on June 18 to explore the potential links to the complications: myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart.
About two-thirds of the cases were in young males, with a median age of 30 years. The numbers are higher than would be expected for that age group, officials said, but have not yet been definitively linked to the vaccines.
Rep. Lee Zeldin calls out the ‘double standard’ from Democrats who haven’t held Rep. Ilhan Omar accountable for her ‘anti-Semitic’ comments.
EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans who broke with the party in February to remove Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments after making controversial comments, are now demanding that Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. from her assignments amid backlash over statements likening the United States and Israel to the Taliban and Hamas.
“We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked @SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice,” Omar, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said this week after a hearing featuring testimony from Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The congresswoman asked about ICC investigations into U.S. and Israeli actions in Afghanistan and Palestinian territories.
Now, eight House Republicans, led by Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida are demanding Pelosi remove Omar from her committee assignments.
In a letter to the speaker, exclusively obtained by Fox News, the GOP members reminded Pelosi that she said “it is the responsibility of the party’s leadership in the House of Representatives to hold accountable egregious words and actions made by Members of the Party.”
“Now is the time for you to rise to the challenge you have set for yourself,” Gimenez, and GOP Reps. Young Kim of California, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Fred Upton of Michigan, Chris Jacobs and Nicole Malliotakis of New York and Mario Díaz-Balart and Maria Salazar of Florida wrote.
“Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has made a congressional career out of the following: Fueling anti-Semitic violence against Jewish communities by perpetuating false stereotypes and anti-Semitic tropes; denigrating strategic allies of the United States; accusing members of Congress of unconstitutionally pleading allegiance to a foreign sovereign because of their support of the U.S.-Israel partnership; whitewashing the September 11 terrorist attacks that resulted in the death of over 3,000 innocent Americans, and drawing [an] equivalence between the United States and criminal organizations such as Hamas and the Taliban—both of which have been deemed by the Department of State as terrorist organizations,” they wrote.
“These comments and policy stances undermine the interests of the United States abroad and weakens the effectiveness of our foreign policy,” they continued. “Her continued involvement as a prominent member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee cheapens the role of Congress in foreign policy decision-making.”
The Republicans added that it “sends a dangerous signal to our allies and our adversaries alike that the United States tolerates anti-Semitism, that we no longer believe in the long-term mission of supporting free peoples and free markets, and that we no longer remain committed to combatting acts of terror against the United States or our allies.”
The Republicans described Omar’s view of American foreign policy as “inconsistent and incompatible” with American foreign policy “crafted by both Republican and Democratic presidents.”
But reflecting on Omar’s past controversial comments, the Republicans said that the congresswoman “has been given the benefit of the doubt each time.”
“Time after time, Congresswoman Omar has delivered a hollow and meaningless apology with the sole purpose of appeasing her party’s leadership, only to revert back to her true sentiments and her real policy stances,” they wrote.
But the Republicans called on Pelosi to act, saying that “the only rebuke on this issue that will have any meaningful impact in the House of Representatives is yours.”
“We wholeheartedly request that you live up to your word and swiftly remove Congresswoman Omar from her committee assignments,” they wrote.
The GOP congressional contingent also noted that to “turn a blind eye on this would be a ‘cowardly refusal’ to hold Members on your side of the aisle accountable and a dereliction of your role as the leader of your party and as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, an institution we all so proudly and honorably serve.”
The Republicans were quoting Pelosi, who, in February, as the House was considering whether to remove first-term House member Greene from her committee assignments, called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., “cowardly” for refusing to support her ouster.
Republicans widely disavowed Greene’s comments — which included QAnon conspiracies, claims that mass school schoolings were staged, suggesting a plane didn’t hit the Pentagon during 9/11, endorsing violence against prominent Democrats and espousing anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views.
But Republicans largely panned the House vote to remove Greene from committees because they didn’t want Democrats interfering with GOP matters and setting a new precedent for penalizing members for statements and postings they made prior to entering Congress.
Gimenez, Díaz-Balart, Salazar, Kim, Kinzinger, Jacobs, Upton, and Malliotakis voted to remove Greene.
Pelosi did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment on whether she would push for Omar’s removal from her committee assignments.
But Omar issued a statement Thursday, attempting to clarify her comments after she was met with a flood of criticism from not only Republicans on the Hill, but from members of her own party.
“To be clear: the conversation was about accountability for specific incidents regarding those ICC (International Criminal Court) cases, not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel,” Omar said Thursday.
“I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems,” she added.
Pelosi, joined by five other elected House Democratic leaders, thanked Omar for her clarification but warned against making drastic comparisons.
“Drawing false equivalencies between democracies like the U.S. and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and the Taliban foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all,” the group wrote.
“We welcome the clarification by Congresswoman Omar that there is no moral equivalency between the U.S. and Israel and Hamas and the Taliban,” the statement concluded.
Despite the comments from their leadership, some Democrats, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York sided with Omar.
“Pretty sick & tired of the constant vilification, intentional mischaracterization, and public targeting of Rep. Ilhan Omar coming from our caucus,” she said.
“This isn’t about a single police officer charged with a heinous crime, a heinous assault on our democracy,” she said. “We have to stand in one clear, united voice and say, ‘Not in this time, not in this place, will we ever tolerate hate.’”
We’re so grateful for Julie’s leadership and work shaping California Today over the past four years. As we bid her farewell, we asked her to share a little about the experience.
Do you remember the first California Today that you edited? What were the big stories in the state at the time?
The first edition published on Sept. 6, 2016, with a call to readers to tell us about the issues they cared most about and wanted us to cover. Wildfires, housing and ballot measures were all top of mind — issues that are still extremely relevant today.
The idea was to hear from and speak to readers more directly, and to use all the incredible expertise of our reporters in California to help keep them informed. We also wanted to highlight local journalism across the state at a time when many outlets were under threat. My favorite early editions relied a lot on our readers, they helped us report out the terrible Oakland Ghost Ship warehouse fire, shared opinions about the midterms and gave us tips about where to find hidden gems like this one from a reader in Napa:
“Everyone comes to the Napa Valley for the wine. Only a handful of people know about Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. Hiking is wonderful and the first mile, in a beautiful shady forest, ends at a plaque commemorating the site of the cabin where Stevenson honeymooned with his new wife, Franny, in 1880.”
— Kathie Fowler, Napa
What do you think has changed the most about the state since then?
Looking back it’s incredible to see how much hasn’t changed. Our first several editions were all about wildfires. We spent a big part of a year focused on homelessness and how the conditions in camps in Oakland resemble those in the developing world. The wealth divide has been a consistent theme and it seems only to have gotten starker.
In the past year, it’s been remarkable to see how Californians have come together to fight the pandemic and it’s reassuring to see how well the state is doing now. But it also feels like many problems have only gotten worse. I know people who are considering moving because they don’t want to risk losing their house to yet another fire.
As my colleague Adam Nagourney said, “The sense of California exceptionalism — of why would anyone live anywhere else — is not as strong as it once was.” And as Conor Dougherty points out, in the past few years there has been a pretty collective recognition that the current path is unsustainable and we need a serious course correction, but as always there is little agreement over exactly what to do.
You’ll still be helping to guide California coverage in your new role, but is there anything you particularly want to keep reading about, as a Californian yourself?
(CNN) The Justice Department’s inspector general will investigate the department’s handling of a leak investigation into former President Donald Trump’s political enemies that included a subpoena to collect metadata of lawmakers, staff and some family members, the office announced Friday.
The request comes as House Intelligence Committee Democrats hold a briefing at which Chairman Adam Schiff is expected to talk with his members about what the committee has learned, a source familiar tells CNN.
The activity follows the bombshell revelation that prosecutors in the Trump administration Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of House Intelligence Committee Democrats along with their staff and family members as part of a leak investigation.
The prosecutors were looking for the sources behind news stories about contacts between Russia and Trump associates.
Schumer and Durbin call for former attorneys general to testify
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin are calling for former Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions to testify on the matter.
“If they refuse, they are subject to being subpoenaed and compelled to testify under oath,” the Democrats said in a statement.
“This issue should not be partisan; under the Constitution, Congress is a co-equal branch of government and must be protected from an overreaching executive, and we expect that our Republican colleagues will join us in getting to the bottom of this serious matter,” Schumer and Durbin said.
White House calls reports ‘appalling’
In the Biden administration’s first on-camera reaction Friday, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield called the reports “appalling.”
“The reports of the behavior of the attorney general under Donald Trump are appalling,” Bedingfield said during an appearance on MSNBC from Cornwall, England.
Bedingfield suggested President Joe Biden has a “very different relationship” with the Justice Department than his predecessor, calling out the Trump administration’s “abuse of power” with the department, and adding that the Biden administration’s Justice Department is “run very, very differently.”
Biden, Bedingfield said, “respects the independence of the Justice Department, and it’s a critically important part of how he governs.”
Swalwell says Trump ‘weaponized’ Justice Department
California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, whose data was seized by the Trump administration, said Trump “weaponized” the Justice Department to dig into the private communications.
“This is about everyday Americans who don’t want to see their government weaponize law enforcement against them because of their political beliefs,” Swalwell told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on “Newsroom.”
Asked Friday by Sciutto if he leaked classified information involving investigations, Swalwell replied, “No, never.”
The House is currently not in session and many members are back in their home districts across the country so the House committee briefing is not taking place in person.
The source tells CNN that throughout Thursday evening, members grew concerned that they may not have been aware of if their information had been seized. There are also concerns about what, if any, other methods the Trump administration might have used to look at political adversaries.
Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on Friday to news organizations that provided in-depth coverage of the dramatic turns of 2020, a year dominated by a pandemic that left millions dead and a national conversation on race after the murder of George Floyd.
The prize for public service, considered the most prestigious of the Pulitzers, went to The New York Times for its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, an award shared by many departments at the newspaper.
The Pulitzer board also recognized journalism that examined law enforcement practices during a year of worldwide street protests inspired, in part, by the murder of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer in Minneapolis.
The national reporting award went to The Marshall Project, AL.com, IndyStar and the Invisible Institute for a collaborative investigation on police dogs used as weapons, often against innocent citizens, reporting that led to government reforms.
The G7 summit in the resort of Carbis Bay in Cornwall, in the south-west of England, has seen the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK gather in person for the first time since the pandemic.
We keep learning disturbing new details about how farDONALD TRUMP’S Justice Department was willing to go after perceived enemies it suspected were responsible for Russia-related leaks. It pursued members of the media and, according to a bombshell report by the NYT on Thursday night, Democrats in Congress and their family members, too: “As the Justice Department investigated who was behind leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration, it took a highly unusual step: Prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members. One was a minor.
“All told, the records of at least a dozen people tied to the committee were seized in 2017 and early 2018, including those of Representative ADAM B. SCHIFF of California, then the panel’s top Democrat and now its chairman, according to committee officials and two other people briefed on the inquiry.
“Prosecutors, under the beleaguered attorney general,JEFF SESSIONS, were hunting for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Ultimately, the data and other evidence did not tie the committee to the leaks, and investigators debated whether they had hit a dead end and some even discussed closing the inquiry.”
Schiff said “the Inspector General should investigate this and other cases that suggest the weaponization of law enforcement.”
WE HAVE MORE BELOW on the latest bipartisan infrastructure talks and rising Democratic tensions over Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.). But first a dispatch from Tara, who spent years reporting on European politics for us in Brussels, on why President JOE BIDEN’S trip abroad is so important to his political prospects at home:
‘THIS IS AN ACID TEST’ — When we talk to European diplomats and officials, they all say the same thing — the Biden presidency is a “sigh of relief” after the “near-death experience” of Trump.
The past five years have made them acutely aware of U.S. domestic politics — specifically an American electorate that’s drifted away from the internationalism of BARACK OBAMA toward Trump’s isolationism. Trump’s lost, but his America-first message will be front and center in Republican politics, whether it’s Trump as messenger or someone else. And Democrats will need to have a credible response.
This week we checked in with the former U.S. ambassador to the EU,ANTHONY GARDNER, about Biden’s first foreign trip. Gardner has a unique perspective: He was widely respected in Brussels during Obama’s second term and advised Biden’s 2020 campaign by serving as co-chair of the EU working group.
Gardner had some tough advice for Europe if they really want to avoid a Trump comeback:Give Biden a win on China. Not mushy assurances of cooperation or niceties about the change in tone from America — a tangible victory that he can use to neutralize Trump’s message.
“There’s always that risk, that’s what democracies are about,” Gardner told Playbook, referring to a Biden loss in 2024. “That’s exactly why you in Europe should think about how you can contribute to the success of the administration.”
Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN said in March that the U.S. won’t make its European allies choose between “us-or-them” on China. But Gardner sees it differently.
There’s a short window for Bidenand the Democratic Party to prove to voters that Europe is worth our time and preferable to Trump’s go-it-alone policy on China. That means working together on trade, using the power of the WTO to close off their markets to Chinese exporters, and getting tough on Chinese subsidies and IP violations. These are issues Gardner believes Biden could sell at home to working- and middle-class voters.
“We cannot afford to go through the motions,” Gardner said. “We need to make clear to our electorate and our voters that working multilaterally, with rules and institutions, yields better results, and that communiques are no substitute for results.”
He added: “Some Europeans won’t like it to be put this way. But this is the acid test. This is the reality today. What good is Europe if it’s not going to work with us on this issue?”
Europeans aren’t sure they’re ready to trust the U.S. wholeheartedly again. It was Trump’s abandonment of Europe that essentially pushed them into China’s arms. That split European countries into two camps: those that rely on the U.S. for security and defense and agree with Gardner that the way forward is to help Biden domestically; and others like France and Germany that want to tread cautiously so as not to alienate China, in case they have to prepare for a world order without the U.S. at the top.
“Some [Europeans] thought the China problem was basically just a Trump thing, underestimating the bipartisan basis in Washington for criticism of Beijing,” said ANTHONY TEASDALE, director general of the European Parliamentary Research Service. “The reality is that most Americans feel threatened by China’s challenge to their status as global No. 1. This isn’t just a Trump thing, it’s an American thing. Realizing this has disoriented some European leaders, who are having to get up to speed with a longer-term shift in U.S. foreign policy.”
THE CAPITOL RIOTER NEXT DOOR — Imagine learning that someone you’ve known for 18 years is alleged to have been responsible for some of the worst violence on Jan. 6. How do you square that? In this week’s episode of “Playbook Deep Dive,” RACHAEL and journalist MELANIE WARNER dive into the story of JEFFREY SABOL, one man whose alleged activity on Jan. 6 left many in his life confused and grappling for answers — about how a highly educated, middle-aged man with so much to lose could participate in what FBI Director CHRISTOPHER WRAY called “domestic terrorism.” What does his story tell us about the Capitol insurrectionists, and how everyday Americans became the new face of extremism?Listen and subscribe here
BIDEN’S FRIDAY:
— 12:15 p.m. British Summer Time: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
— Noon: First lady JILL BIDEN and the Duchess of Cambridge will tour a preschool in Cornwall and participate in a roundtable on early childhood education.
— 1:55 p.m.: Biden will depart St. Ives en route to Carbis Bay, where he will arrive at 2 p.m. and greet British PM BORIS JOHNSON and his wife, CARRIE, at 2:10 p.m.
— 2:20 p.m.: Biden will participate in a family photo with other G-7 leaders.
— 2:45 p.m.: The president will attend the G-7 Summit Session 1.
— 4:25 p.m.: Biden will depart Carbis Bay en route to St Ives, where he will arrive at 4:30 p.m.
— 5:40 p.m.: The president and first lady will depart St Ives en route to Bodelva, Cornwall, where they will arrive at 6 p.m.
— 6:15 p.m.: The Bidens will participate in a reception, family photo and dinner with other G-7 leaders and the Royal Family.
— 9:10 p.m.: The president and first lady will depart Bodelva en route to St Ives, where they will arrive at 9:30 p.m.
HARRIS’ FRIDAY: VP KAMALA HARRIS will deliver remarks on child care and families at 10:30 a.m.
THE SENATE is out. THE HOUSE will meet at 11:30 a.m. in a pro forma session.
PLAYBOOK READS
INFRASTRUCTURE YEAR
UNDERSTANDING THIS NEW BIPARTISAN DEAL: The group of 10 centrist senators scrambling to save infrastructure talks announced a framework for a deal: $1 trillion over five years, or $1.2 trillion over eight years, including $579 billion in new spending. The agreement is substantially more money than the final offer Sen. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-W.Va.) made to Biden before talks fell apart — though still $400 billion less than Biden asked for.
But take this with a grain of salt for three reasons:
— One of their pay-fors includes indexing the gas tax with inflation, which would obviously increase the tax over time. The idea has been a major no-no for Biden, who vowed not to raise taxes on people making under $400,000 a year. In fact, our transportation reporter SAM MINTZ scooped Thursday that the White House “considers indexing the gas tax to inflation to be a violation of Biden’s pledge … and is not willing to include it in an infrastructure package, according to a source familiar with President Biden’s thinking.” Later, the White House released a statement saying “questions need to be addressed, particularly around the details of both policy and pay fors, among other matters.”
— Only five Republicans had their name on this agreement. But the chamber won’t get the 10 GOP senators needed for passage without Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL. We’ll have to see what the Kentucky Republican says about this.
— This alsoassumes every Senate Democrat would swallow a deal that’s a far cry from the bold vision they want. In just one warning sign this week, climate advocates are growing increasingly alarmed at suggestions that their pet issue may fall by the wayside.
WaPo’s Jeff Stein, Juliet Eilperin and Tyler Pagerreported Thursday night that AL GORE called Biden to implore him to tackle climate head on. And Senate Finance Chair RON WYDEN (D-Ore.) told the trio he would oppose any infrastructure deal that didn’t address climate or hike taxes on multinational corporations.
SO WHAT NOW? Don’t expect Democratic leaders to immediately pan the deal. Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER intends to let this process play out so his moderate members get a chance to make the bipartisan deal they’ve been hoping for — or at least try. In the process, they’ll either learn it can’t be done or they’ll succeed. Either way, Schumer can push forward anything they can’t pass with Republicans, via reconciliation.
— “Dem leaders look to deescalate Omar drama,”by Sarah Ferris: “Top Democrats on Thursday attempted to quickly defuse a fraught dispute within their caucus after comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar that compared war crimes committed by the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban incensed some Jewish Democrats. Speaker NANCY PELOSI’S leadership team took the unusual step of issuing a statement that both rebuked Omar for her comments and thanked her for later clarifying her remarks — taking a more nuanced approach than the last major uproar over the Minnesota Democrat’s comments on Israel that escalated into a days-long political crisis for her party.”
— In response to leadership’s statement Omar, however,Rep. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Mich.) tweeted a rather astounding rebuke of senior Democrats, suggesting this drama isn’t over yet: “Freedom of speech doesn’t exist for Muslim women in Congress. The benefit of the doubt doesn’t exist for Muslim women in Congress. House Democratic leadership should be ashamed of its relentless, exclusive tone policing of Congresswomen of color.”
DEATH AND TAXES
— “Billionaire Tax Leak Referred to FBI as Probe Grows, IRS Says,”Bloomberg: “The disclosure of the personal income and tax data of some of the wealthiest Americans has been referred to additional federal investigators to probe the leak of confidential information, an Internal Revenue Service official said.”
— “Republicans use leak of billionaires’ tax secrets to attack Biden’s plan to boost IRS,” by Aaron Lorenzo: “Ways and Means Committee Republicans on Thursday said the leak of tax information on rich Americans like JEFF BEZOS, ELON MUSK and other billionaires erodes trust in the IRS and should disqualify President Joe Biden’s proposals to boost agency enforcement. GOP members of the panel — without citing evidence — blamed IRS insiders for the criminal breach of private taxpayer data, and suggested the timing was fishy.”
FLOTUS FILES
— “Jill Biden wants to share the ‘LOVE’ overseas,” by Eugene: “The day that she departed with her husband for his first foreign trip as president, the first lady’s office sent out a picture that encapsulates how Dr. Jill Biden thinks about her new role. She’s sitting at a desk in a cornflower blue jacket, poring over a huge binder with stacks of papers all around.
“The message: Jill Biden is not here to just focus on the frilly aspects of the first lady gig, she’s a woman of substance and wants the public to know it. In some ways the veteran political spouse is a return to more traditional, non-controversial first ladies after one — MELANIA TRUMP — who enjoyed celebrity status but spent most of her time as a partisan lightning rod. … For this first presidential trip abroad, the first lady is working on cementing her independent, ‘Jill from Philly’ image by setting up her own schedule during the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, primarily highlighting her main initiative on military families.”
— London Playbook: “Prez and PM punching: Pretty much all the British papers splash on the Carrie Johnson/Jill Biden photo-op — and it sounds like the president was a fan too. Joe Biden laid it on thick at yesterday’s brief appearance in front of the press, telling the PM: ‘I’m thrilled to meet your wife. I told the prime minister we have something in common: we both married above our station.’ Newlywed Johnson responded: ‘I’m not going to disagree with the president on that or anything else.’ (H/t POLITICO’s White House correspondent Anita Kumar.)”
POLITICS CORNER
BUCKING THE BOSS — “Shelby sides against Trump in Alabama Senate race,” by Burgess Everett: “Republican RICHARD SHELBY is backing his former chief of staff KATIE BOYD BRITT in the race to succeed him in the Senate, siding against former President Donald Trump’s favored candidate, Rep. MO BROOKS. ‘She’s like family. She’d make a good candidate. She’s probably the best-qualified candidate to come along in a long time,’ Shelby said in an interview. ‘I’d support her, I’d vote for her.’”
2022 WATCH — “Mark Brnovich, Arizona’s attorney general, launches U.S. Senate campaign,” Arizona Republic: “Arizona Attorney General MARK BRNOVICH announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate race’s Republican primary in 2022, jumping into what is expected to be a hotly contested battle to challenge incumbent Sen. MARK KELLY. Brnovich, a libertarian-leaning Republican who has served as the state’s top prosecutor since 2015, becomes the third Republican to get into the race and the most well-known politically.”
FOR THE RECORD — Post and Courier’s JAMIE LOVEGROVE (@jslovegrove): “Asked by @postandcourier if he will run for reelection next year, [Rep. JIM CLYBURN] says, ‘Not just yes, but hell yes.’ He has represented #SC06 since 1993 and will be 82 by the time of the 2022 midterms.”
— Roll Call’s Lindsey McPherson tweeted this context: “This is interesting. Alot of people thought Clyburn would retire when Pelosi did. While Pelosi has not committed to retiring, she made a promise in 2018 not to run for speaker again in 2022. And Clyburn has said he’s not interested in replacing her. So what’s his plan?”
HOW RED — REBA MCENTIRE will be a special guest at a fundraiser for South Dakota Gov. KRISTI NOEM this weekend, per Stephen Sanchez.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
WHAT BERNIE IS READING — “These businesses found a way around the worker shortage: Raising wages to $15 an hour or more,” by WaPo’s Eli Rosenberg: “Across the country, businesses in sectors such as food service and manufacturing that are trying to staff up have been reporting an obstacle to their success — a scarcity of workers interested in applying for low-wage positions. The issue has raised concerns about the strength of the country’s recovery as coronavirus cases abate, with the economy still down more than 7.5 million jobs compared with before the pandemic.”
GONE BIBI GONE
STOP US IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE BEFORE — “Israel’s Netanyahu lashes out as end of his era draws near,” by AP’s Josef Federman in Jerusalem: “In what appear to be the final days of his historic 12-year rule, Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU is not leaving the political stage quietly. The longtime leader is accusing his opponents of betraying their voters, and some have needed special security protection. Netanyahu says he is the victim of a ‘deep state’ conspiracy. He speaks in apocalyptic terms when talking about the country without his leadership.”
DESSERT
HIGH, HOW ARE YOU — NATALIE FERTIG (@natsfert): “Me: ‘I work at POLITICO, I’m the cannabis reporter.’ @BernieSanders: ‘You’re the cannabis reporter?’ Me: ‘I’m the cannabis reporter.’ Sanders: ‘Are you stoned right now?’ Me: ‘I am not stoned right now.’ Sanders: ‘Is that a requirement to be…?’ Me: ‘It’s actually not.’”Audio of the exchange, via POLITICO Dispatch
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week,” with Yamiche Alcindor moderating from Cornwall, England, and Ed O’Keefe co-moderating from D.C.: Jonathan Martin, Anna Palmer and Vivian Salama.
SUNDAY SO FAR …
“This Week”: Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). Panel: Rick Klein, Michèle Flournoy, Will Hurd and Amna Nawaz.
“Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) … Mike Pompeo. Panel: Marc Thiessen, Catherine Lucey and Harold Ford Jr. Power Player: Donna de Varona.
“The Sunday Show”: Kimberly Atkins Stohr … Michael Gerson … Chris Matthews … Yamiche Alcindor … Katty Kay … Helene Cooper.
“Inside Politics”: Panel: Olivier Knox, Laura Barron Lopez, Melanie Zanona, Vivian Salama and John Harwood.
“Face the Nation”: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) … Andy Slavitt … Scott Gottlieb.
“Full Court Press”: Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) … Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
“Miller’s company is currently developing a social media platform that is being considered for use by Trump. People familiar with the discussions stress that no final decision has been made by the former president about which platform he will use. … The aide is expected to remain with Trump’s team, but not in a full-time, day-to-day role, according to a person familiar with the plans.”
PENCE’S NEW PALACE — “Mike Pence buys $1.9M Indiana home packed with amenities,” N.Y. Post: “Property records reveal that Pence, 62, bought a seven-bedroom, 7½-bathroom house in the upscale location of Carmel — known as the luxury pinnacle in his state of Indiana. …
“Spanning a massive 10,300 square feet, the estate sits on five acres of land and comes with all the amenities your heart desires. Built in 2008, the home offers a fitness room, an indoor basketball court, a handcrafted bar, a media room, a study, and several living spaces throughout. Outdoor features include a dock looking out onto a large pond, an in-ground pool and an expansive screened porch.”
CRINGE-WORTHY TV —Jeffrey Toobin is back on air with CNN eight months after he was fired from The New Yorker and took leave from the TV network for getting caught masturbating on a Zoom call. Host Alisyn Camerota didn’t mince words Thursday, describing his act before asking Toobin, “What the hell were you thinking?”
MEDIAWATCH — This year’s National Magazine Awards were announced Thursday, with top honors going to The New Yorker, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Audubon and Stranger’s Guide. The full list of winners
SPOTTED: Pete and Chasten Buttigieg dining with Pete’s mother, Jennifer Anne Montgomery, at The Duck & The Peach on Thursday night. Pic…Another pic … Bret Baier and Paul Ryan at Cafe Milano for lunch on Thursday.
SPOTTED at an event at Australian Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos and Elizabeth Sinodinos’ residence for the outgoing Deputy Ambassador Katrina Cooper on Wednesday night: DNI Avril Haines, Kurt Campbell, Julie Smith, Michèle Flournoy, Jill Tiefenthaler, Jean Baderschneider, Amanda Nguyen, Lisa Truitt, Laura Rosenberger, Singaporean Ambassador Ashok Mirpuri, Jane Duke, Dan Feldman, Harold Koh, Suzanne Spaulding, John Negroponte, Margo Smith and Paula Dobriansky.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK —The Commerce Department is adding a slate of senior staff: Liani Balasuriya is now executive secretariat, Jenny Kaplan is senior adviser for private sector engagement, Caitlin Legacki is senior adviser for strategic comms,and Scott Mulhauser has taken a temporary leave from Bully Pulpit Interactive to serve as a senior adviser to Secretary Gina Raimondo.
TRUMP ALUMNI — Christopher Ford is now senior adviser for geopolitical policy and strategy at MITRE. He most recently performed the duties of the undersecretary of State for arms control and international security.
TRANSITIONS — Francesca Craig is now acting as social secretary at the British Embassy. She most recently was director of special projects for the Motion Picture Association and is also the former social secretary to the French ambassador. … Chanse Jones is now senior director of public affairs at Forbes Tate Partners. He previously was senior manager of media relations and external comms at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. … Michael Feldman is now director of public affairs at CISA. He previously worked on the Biden campaign. …
… Ilse Zuniga is now press secretary for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). She most recently was press secretary for Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.). … Ryan Shay is now legislative director for Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.). He most recently was senior legislative assistant for Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.). … Schroeder Stribling will be president and CEO of Mental Health America. She currently is CEO of N Street Village, a D.C. housing nonprofit.
WEDDING — Geoff Burgan, comms director for Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and a Biden campaign alum, and Farah Melendez, campaign manager for Virginia A.G. Mark Herring and political director at the Democratic Attorneys General Association, got married May 20 in Salt Lake City in front of a small group of family and friends. Pic
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Hannah Bruce Huey, principal at Molly Allen & Associates, and Daniel Huey, a partner at Something Else Strategies, on Wednesday welcomed Henry Burtch Huey, who came in at 7 lbs, 13 oz and 20.5 inches.Pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Jennifer Rubin … Tad Devine of Devine Mulvey Longabaugh … Greta Van Susteren … Kim Oates of the House Radio/TV Gallery … J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami … Cisco’s Michael Timmeny … Lindsey Williams Drath … Cesar Gonzalez of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart’s (R-Fla.) office … Deputy CIA Director David Cohen … TJ Adams-Falconer … DNC’s Lucas Acosta … Will Rahn … Jessica Franks Owens … Antonio De Loera-Brust … Eric Lieberman …Pentagon’s Jamal Brown … Duke’s Mike Schoenfeld … APCO Worldwide’s Penina Graubart … Treasury’s Arian Rubio … Lorissa Bounds … Alexa Papadopoulos … Kristen Thomaselli … Mary Kate Cunningham … Salesforce’s Tom Gavin … Matthew Campbell … Google’s Ramya Raghavan … Tom Alexander … Marty Kearns of Netcentric Campaigns … POLITICO’s Denis Manevski … Emily Dobler … former Reps. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) (91) … Ashley Mocarski … former South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard … Jennifer Budoff of the D.C. City Council
Send Playbookers tips to [email protected]. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
“These materials contain trade secrets or confidential commercial or financial information that is exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act or other applicable laws or regulations,” wrote Gianelle E. Rivera, GSA associate administrator. “Therefore, you must not copy, share, distribute, or otherwise disclose the information in any manner, without prior coordination and approval from GSA.”
The US justice department under Donald Trump seized data from the accounts of at least two members of the House of Representatives intelligence committee in 2018 as part of an aggressive crackdown on leaks related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters, according to a committee official and two people familiar with the investigation.
Prosecutors from the previous president’s DoJ subpoenaed Apple for the data, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the secret seizures first reported by the New York Times.
The records of at least 12 people connected to the intelligence panel were eventually shared, including the chairman, Adam Schiff, who was then the top Democrat on the committee.
The California Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell was the second member, according to spokeswoman Natalie Edelstein. The records of aides, former aides and family members were also siezed, including one who was a minor, according to the committee official.
Apple informed the committee last month that their records had been shared, but did not give extensive detail. The committee is aware, though, that metadata from the accounts was turned over, the official said.
The records do not contain any other content from the devices, like photos, messages or emails, one of the other people said. The third person said that Apple complied with the subpoena, providing the information to the DoJ, and did not immediately notify the members of Congress or the committee about the disclosure.
While the justice department routinely conducts investigations of leaked information, including classified intelligence, opening such an investigation into members of Congress is extraordinarily rare.
Schiff tweeted: “Trump repeatedly demanded the DoJ go after his political enemies. It’s clear his demands didn’t fall on deaf ears. This baseless investigation, while now closed, is yet another example of Trump’s corrupt weaponization of justice. And how much he imperiled our democracy.”
Trump repeatedly demanded the DOJ go after his political enemies.
It’s clear his demands didn’t fall on deaf ears.
This baseless investigation, while now closed, is yet another example of Trump’s corrupt weaponization of justice.
The Trump administration’s attempt to secretly gain access to data of individual members of Congress and others connected to the panel came as the president was fuming publicly and privately over investigations – in Congress and by the special counsel Robert Mueller – into his campaign’s ties to Russia. Trump called the probes a “witch-hunt”, regularly criticized Schiff and other Democrats on Twitter and repeatedly dismissed as “fake news” leaks he found personally harmful to his agenda. As the investigations swirled around him, he demanded loyalty from a justice department he often regarded as his personal law firm.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement that “these actions appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy” waged by the former president.
“The news about the politicization of the Trump administration justice department is harrowing,” she said.
Schiff, now the panel’s chair, alsoconfirmed in a statement on Thursday evening that the DoJ had informed the committee in May that the investigation was closed. Still, he said: “I believe more answers are needed, which is why I believe the inspector general should investigate this and other cases that suggest the weaponization of law enforcement by a corrupt president.”
The justice department told the intelligence panel then that the matter had not transferred to any other entity or investigative body, the committee official said, and the department confirmed that to the committee again on Thursday.
The panel has continued to seek additional information, but the department has not been forthcoming in a timely manner, including on questions such as whether the investigation was properly predicated and whether it only targeted Democrats, the committee official said.
It is unclear why Trump’s justice department would have targeted a minor as part of the investigation. Swalwell, confirming that he was told his records were seized, told CNN on Thursday evening that he was aware a minor was involved and “I believe they were targeted punitively and not for any reason in law.”
Another Democrat on the intelligence panel, the Illinois representative Mike Quigley, said he did not find it even “remotely surprising” that Trump went after committee members’ records during the Russia investigation.
“From my first days as part of the Russia investigation, I expected that eventually, someone would attempt this – I just wasn’t sure if it would be a hostile government or my own,” Quigley said.
And the Florida congresswoman Val Demings, an impeachment manager in Trump’s first Senate trial, and who is now challenging Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio for his seat, tweeted: “It is outrageous but not surprising. We have a former president with no regard for the rule of law or for those who enforce the laws. We need to conduct a thorough investigation and hold everybody responsible accountable.”
“We try to organize optimism to have impact,” said Jamie Drummond, who founded the advocacy group One with Bono, the leader singer of U2. “But there are many reasons to be very angry as well. Not enough is being done.”
Mustering anger is not easy when Covid restrictions make it impossible to gather crowds of protesters, security cordons keep them 25 miles from where the leaders are staying, and one of the antagonists at such gatherings, Mr. Trump, has been replaced by the more emollient Mr. Biden.
When the Trump baby balloon first took flight in July 2018 in London, during a visit by the president, the police estimated that more than 100,000 demonstrators were on hand. The Biden-Boris blimp will float in Falmouth’s harbor, where it can be viewed by the press and the scattered tourists left in an otherwise locked-down port.
Mr. Drummond insisted that a new United States president had not taken the wind out of the advocacy efforts. There was no in-person Group of 7 last year because of the pandemic, he said, and the combination of a health and climate crisis lend this gathering as much urgency as any previous summit.
“There are hard facts and data — about Covid, about climate, about ecology and about injustice — which are not being paid attention to,” Mr. Drummond said. “And the response from leaders is not commensurate with these crises.”
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