Justice Dept. Will Toughen Rules for Seizing Lawmakers’ Data, Garland Says

But on Monday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, denounced those calls, saying that an investigation by the Justice Department’s independent inspector general was sufficient. By calling for a congressional inquiry, he said, top Democrats “gave in to the urge to pick at the scab of politically motivated investigations.”

“The Department of Justice is empowered to investigate criminal conduct by members of Congress and their staff — necessarily, this sort of investigation is subject to strict procedural protections,” Mr. McConnell said. “The department’s inspector general is fully equipped to determine whether these procedures were followed. I’m confident that the existing inquiry will uncover the truth.”

He also said that it was “particularly disappointing that our colleagues are attacking Bill Barr over investigative decisions that occurred when he wasn’t there yet.”

The grand jury subpoena that swept up congressional information was dated February 2018, when Mr. Sessions and Mr. Rosenstein were still the top two officials in the Justice Department.

Still, after Mr. Barr was sworn in the following year, The Times has reported, he brought in a trusted prosecutor with little relevant experience to help reinvigorate several leak cases, including the one that involved congressional Democrats and their staff.

Eventually, it was closed without charges.

Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat who has supported calling the former attorneys general to testify, pushed back at Mr. McConnell’s suggestion that there was nothing amiss, asking, “How would he know that?”

Mr. Durbin, who is also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter signed by the other 10 Democrats on that panel to Mr. Garland on Monday asking for a copy of the subpoena and internal emails and other records related to it, and posing questions about its basis and purpose.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/politics/leak-investigations-justice-department.html