https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trumps-doj-secretly-obtained-phone-text-message-logs-43-congressional-rcna183610

Seeking to investigate leaks of classified information, the Trump Justice Department in 2017 and 2018 secretly obtained phone and text message logs of 43 congressional staffers and two members of Congress in a far broader probe than previously known, according to a new report by the department’s internal watchdog.

The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the DOJ didn’t act with political motives, but failed to take sufficient account of constitutional separation of powers by seizing communications records of staffers and lawmakers — and making them subjects of a criminal investigation — only because they had lawful access to state secrets through their jobs.

Prosecutors obtained the records using subpoenas and other legal processes to third-party providers, including Apple, and attached gag orders to prevent the companies from notifying the customers. The fact of the seizures had previously been reported, but the IG revealed new details about the broad scope of the effort.

Separately, the IG report released Tuesday found that the Justice Department violated its own policies in the way it secretly obtained phone and text records from reporters in the same leak investigations, which related to the FBI’s probe of suspected Trump campaign coordination with Russia.