The Trump administration secretly obtained phone records from Washington Post journalists who wrote about allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The US Department of Justice sent a letter to reporters Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller, as well as former reporter Adam Entous, stating that it had received their personal and business landline and mobile phone data for the period from April 15, 2017 through July. 31, 2017. ”, Reports Washington Post.
Editor-in-chief Cameron Barr said the newspaper was “extremely concerned about the government’s use of the authority to access journalists’ communications.” “The Department of Justice should immediately investigate this interference with the activities of reporters protected by the First Amendment” of the US Constitution, he said.
The civil rights organization, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said the Justice Department had “ spied ” on the reporters “ on the basis of a rush from the government. ” “This should never have happened,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote on Twitter. “If the government spies on journalists and their sources, it is endangering the freedom of the press.”
The Ministry of Justice said it followed “ standard procedures ” with regard to the request, the newspaper quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. The letters to reporters did not explain the reason for the confiscation of the data.
However, at the end of that period, the three reporters wrote a story about US intelligence agencies in which they suggested that Jeff Sessions, who would later become Attorney General under Trump, Discuss Trump’s campaign with the Russian ambassador. Moscow is accused of deceptively supporting Trump’s 2016 nomination, with the goal of letting him win.
