The Justice Department’s effort to sweep up phone and email information from congressional staffers during a 2017 investigation into the leak of classified information to the media likely also identified whistleblowers who were reporting problems within the DOJ to congressional overseers.
And a federal judge involved in a case where a watchdog group is suing to get information out of the Justice Department pertaining to that investigation is the same judge who recently made headlines for trying to stop the Trump administration from deporting criminal illegal aliens.
In a case with ramifications for the First Amendment and the separation of powers between the executive branch and Congress, that watchdog group, Empower Oversight, is appealing the ruling of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who allowed the Justice Department to keep secret certain internal documents justifying its methods in the controversial investigation…
Empower Oversight is suing for the public release of the arguments the Justice Department made to the court over the six years for imposing and renewing the gag order on Google and other providers. The DOJ’s arguments for renewing the gag orders have been kept under seal by the court.
The DOJ should not have put a gag order on Google, as grand jury secrecy applies to the government, generally not to private entities or to the target of a subpoena, Empower Oversight founder Jason Foster, told The Daily Signal.
“In America, in a free society, normally, the public is allowed to view court filings, unless there is a good reason,” Foster said. “The justifiable reason for the secrecy is long gone because the case was closed.”
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