Trump-Era Leak Investigations Extended Deep Into Congress, Review Finds

Leak investigations during the Trump administration extended far deeper into Congress than previously known, leading to the scrutiny of the records of dozens of staff members, the Justice Department’s inspector general found in what it described as worrisome overreach.

The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, released the report on Tuesday, examining how federal prosecutors tried to figure out who was revealing classified information to reporters in 2017. The issue, while seven years old, may gain new urgency given that President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to pursue leakers in his second term.

Mr. Horowitz’s report did not find that politics were a motivating force in the actions of the investigators. In fact, some of the behavior he found most worrisome did not require senior approvals within the department at the time.

The broad outlines of the leak investigations, which included subpoenas and other secret legal demands for the phone records of reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, have previously been reported. The new inspector general report, however, lays out in much greater detail the investigative efforts directed at congressional staff and two members of Congress.

Two Democratic members of Congress and 43 congressional staff members at the time of the 2017 articles had their communications records subpoenaed by the Justice Department. Of the staff members, 21 were Democrats, 20 were Republicans, and two held nonpartisan jobs in Congress.

The review found that the Justice Department sought those people’s communications records — often related to whom they had called and how long they spoke, as well as whom they sent emails to — because they had access to the information as part of their official duties. The subpoenas did not obtain the content of those calls or emails.