An official report from the Office of the Inspector General concludes that Donald Trump’s Department of Justice forced Apple, as well as others, to provide phone calls and text message data of multiple customers. This list includes 43 congressional staff, two members of Congress from 2017 and 2018, and individuals from the news industry.
Donald Trump’s DOJ forced Apple and others to secretly share customers’ private data
In 2017, several media houses reported that associates within the Trump government were in contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign, based on leaked information. That information was apparently classified which led the DOJ to launch an investigation. At the time, the DOJ prosecutors tried obtaining information via subpoenas, search warrants, and court orders.
A report by The New York Times from 2021 revealed that one of the subpoenas filed by the DOJ in 2018 demanded to see the accounts of 109 identifiers. Two popular names included in the subpoenas were the Democratic Representatives Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell. Interestingly, it also included the names of some other congressional staff and family members including a minor.
On top of that, the DOJ forced Apple and other companies to hand over the data of the aforementioned individuals. The OIG’s report also mentions that the DOJ failed to get approval for a gag order from the Attorney General. That’s not all, it reportedly extended the gag order multiple times so that Apple couldn’t disclose the fact.
According to the OIG’s report, the DOJ unlawfully carried out its proceedings. As Engadget points out, Apple fought back at the time. It developed a new policy and said it would only provide 25 identifiers per demand. The Cupertino tech giant insisted that it wouldn’t share data like photos or text of the emails.
Excerpt from the report of the Office of the Inspector General
A part of the report from the Office of the Inspector General reads, “We found that the Department failed to convene the News Media Review Committee to consider the compulsory process authorization requests.” The DOJ reportedly didn’t obtain the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) certification in one of the investigations.
The OIG also couldn’t confirm whether the obtained certification in other cases was submitted to the Attorney General. Moreover, it expressed concerns by adding, “the Department did not obtain the Attorney General’s express authorization for the NDOs that were sought in connection with compulsory process issued in the investigations.”