The Justice Department during President-elect Trump's first term privately reviewed the communications of a wider pool of people than previously known in its efforts to track down leakers, obtaining the records of more than 40 congressional staffers along with two Democratic lawmakers and several journalists.

The detail was revealed after the department’s Office of Inspector General reviewed the first Trump administration’s efforts to track down those who may have leaked information about the Justice Department’s investigations related to the 2016 election, a bombshell first revealed in 2021 after the Biden Justice Department moved in court to lift the nondisclosure orders originally sought by its predecessors.

The department in 2017 accessed the records of then-Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both Democrats of California, as well as reporters for CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The 96-page report concludes that seeking the records of lawmakers and staffers did not violate any Justice Department policies on the books at the time but the move nonetheless “risks chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch … and creat[es], at a minimum, the appearance of inappropriate interference by the executive branch in........

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