The Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted surveillance on Kash Patel and 44 other federal employees, including two House members, according to a report released Tuesday by the DOJ’s Inspector General. The report also revealed that the DOJ sought court assistance to keep their actions secret.
The DOJ obtained phone records for these individuals during a 2017 investigation into media leaks involving classified FBI information from the discredited Trump-Russia probe.
At the time, Patel was working with the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee. Inspector General Michael Horowitz noted in his report that the DOJ used “non-disclosure orders” (NDOs) to prevent information about these actions from becoming public, omitting key details in court filings, such as the fact that congressional members and staffers were targeted.
NDOs are legal measures issued by the DOJ to acquire records from communication service providers while barring those providers from notifying individuals under investigation.
The report highlighted the DOJ’s 2020 efforts to obtain records from reporters at CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post to identify the sources of leaked classified information.
President Biden denounced the practice in 2021, stating it was “simply, simply wrong” and vowed to end it. Shortly after his