Trump Appointee Takes Marching Orders Over Subpoena Revelations

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Justice Department’s top national security official alerted staffers Monday that he is stepping down.

First to break the news was The New York Times, which obtained a copy of the email from John C. Demers, head of the department’s National Security Division, and was also among media outlets that the government notified last week that the government had taken the rare step of seizing communication records from Democratic congressmen, their staff and family members, and journalists in bid to root out leaks from the agency under the Trump administration. 

As head of the National Security Division, Demers would have been briefed on these investigations and overseen the prosecutors involved. 

Once lauded for his work at the Justice Department under both Democratic and Republican administrations, Demers was the longest-serving official from the Trump administration to remain at the agency after the election of President Joe Biden. He’ll stay at his position until June 25, telling staffers that his departure has been in the works form months and was timed so that his children could finish out the school year ending next week.

Just one day earlier, however, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Demers to testify before Congress about the secret subpoenas that the Justice Department executed on Apple and Microsoft, first in 2017 and again in early 2018, for cellphone metadata belonging to prominent Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee — Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell — as it investigated then-President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. 

Because the Justice Department secured a gag order on Apple that expired this year, lawmakers only learned that they were being investigated when Apple informed them last month. In recent weeks, the Justice Department made similar disclosures to the Times, The Washington Post and CNN that their reporters' phone records had been seized as well.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz launched an internal probe Friday to “examine the department’s compliance with applicable DOJ policies and procedures, and whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations.”

The leak-minded investigations originated under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and the Times reported that his successor, Bill Barr, revived them with a zeal usually reserved for corruption investigations.

Amid uproar across Capitol Hill, the Biden-appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized the Justice Department's mission to stay apolitical.  

“As I stated during my confirmation hearing, political or other improper considerations must play no role in any investigative or prosecutorial decisions,” he said in a statement. “These principles that have long been held as sacrosanct by the DOJ career workforce will be vigorously guarded on my watch, and any failure to live up to them will be met with strict accountability.” 

Garland has instructed Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco to reevaluate the department’s policies on seizing records from the legislative branch. “Consistent with our commitment to the rule of law, we must ensure that full weight is accorded to separation-of-powers concerns moving forward,” he said. 

Demers’s departure leaves questions about how involved he was in the department’s records seizures. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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