Trump Justice Dept. effort to learn source of leaks for Post stories came in Barr's final days as AG [View all]

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Source: Washington Post

National Security

Trump Justice Dept. effort to learn source of leaks for Post stories came in Barr’s final days as AG, court documents show

By Devlin Barrett and Spencer S. Hsu

July 13, 2021 | Updated today at 8:07 p.m. EDT

Newly unsealed court documents show the Trump Justice Department sought a court order for the communications records of three Washington Post reporters in the final days of William P. Barr’s tenure as attorney general in 2020, as prosecutors sought to identify sources for three articles written in 2017.

The papers also reveal the service provider that was the recipient of the secret court order: Proofpoint Corporation, a firm that supplies data security services. Using Proofpoint as a means of trying to get the reporters’ email records suggests prosecutors were thinking creatively about where they might be able to find reporters’ data, beyond just standard email providers like Google or Microsoft. Representatives for Proofpoint did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In addition, the documents indicate the extent to which federal investigators strongly suspected the disclosures of classified information were coming from Congress.

The new details about the investigation come as senior Justice Department officials are working on regulations to limit the ways in which they can pursue reporters’ data when hunting for the sources of classified information.

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By Devlin Barrett
Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department, and is the author of "October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election." He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for National Reporting, for coverage of Russian interference in the U.S. election. Twitter https://twitter.com/DevlinBarrett

By Spencer Hsu
Spencer S. Hsu is an investigative reporter, two-time Pulitzer finalist and national Emmy Award nominee. Hsu has covered homeland security, immigration, Virginia politics and Congress. Twitter https://twitter.com/hsu_spencer

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/washington-post-trump-reporter-emails/2021/07/13/27c1f04e-e41f-11eb-b722-89ea0dde7771_story.html