Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., denounced the "politicization" of government under former President Donald Trump on Thursday after The New York Times reported that the Justice Department targeted records of the communications of key Democratic lawmakers, their aides and family members.
He also called for an inquiry into what he said amounted to a “terrible abuse of power.”
"It violates, I think, the separation of powers, but it also makes the Department of Justice a fully owned subsidiary of the president's personal legal interests," Schiff, who was targeted in the subpoena, said in an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, did not name who else had been targeted, and he said he did not know whether Republican members were included, adding that the subpoenas were "extraordinarily broad."
In a separate statement, Schiff said: "President Trump repeatedly and flagrantly demanded that the Department of Justice carry out his political will, and tried to use the Department as a cudgel against his political opponents and members of the media. It is increasingly apparent that those demands did not fall on deaf ears. The politicization of the Department and the attacks on the rule of law are among the most dangerous assaults on our democracy carried out by the former President."
Schiff said that although the inquiry appears to be closed, there should be an internal investigation.
"Though we were informed by the Department in May that this investigation is closed, I believe more answers are needed, which is why I believe the Inspector General should investigate this and other cases that suggest the weaponization of law enforcement by a corrupt president," he said in his statement.
The Times reported that the Justice Department subpoenaed metadata in February 2018 from the tech giant Apple related to the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as aides and family members, including a minor child.
At the time, the Intelligence Committee was investigating Russian interference into the 2016 election and interviewing witnesses behind closed doors. Schiff and other Democrats on the committee became some of the most vocal critics of Trump in Congress.
Speaking late Thursday to CNN's Don Lemon, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said Apple had told him that his records, too, had been sought.
Apple notified some members of the committee last month that their information had been included, a committee official confirmed to NBC News. Apple also notified current and former staff members and relatives, including a minor child, that their information had been subject to subpoenas, the official said.
The committee asked the Justice Department for more details and was informed last month that the matter had been closed, the official said.
The investigation initially was launched, The Times reported, to find the source of leaks of classified information early in the Trump administration. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions began the inquiry, and it was revived under his successor, William Barr.
The Times reported that, ultimately, the investigation did not connect anyone on the committee to the leaks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoed Schiff's call for an inquiry into the matter, calling it a "weaponization of law enforcement by the former president."
“The news about the politicization of the Trump Administration Justice Department is harrowing. These actions appear to be yet another egregious assault on our democracy waged by the former president," she said.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a statement said the pursuit of the phone records was “a direct attack on the separation of powers and Congressional independence” and called for an investigation of Sessions and Barr.
“There must be a full investigation of abuses under former Attorneys General Sessions and Barr, and anyone at DOJ who was complicit in these abuses of power cannot be trusted to continue serving in government,” the statement said.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
