Trump officials obtained Apple data from two Democratic lawmakers, according to NYT

Prosecutors of the Department of Justice during the government of Donald Trump asked Apple for the personal data of two Democratic lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as their employees and family members, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Communications metadata requirements affected the congressman Adam Schiff, a strong rival of Trump who was then the top Democrat on the committee and now chairs it, the newspaper notes.

The legislator Eric Swalwell told CNN on Thursday that he was the second affected.

“I received a notification  from Apple that they seized my records. That’s wrong”, he said.

According to the newspaper, officials who worked for the attorney general Jeff Sessions made great efforts in 2017 and early 2018 to find the source of leaks of classified information relating to contacts between partners of Trump and Russia.

State Department officials obtained electronic records not only from legislators, but also from their employees and family members, including a minor, possibly because investigators believed that the congressmen were using the devices of their relatives or children to hide contacts with journalists.

Ultimately, none of the data or other evidence linked the Intelligence Committee members to the leaks, the Times claims.

Schiff without confirming that it was a target of the investigation, he asked the Justice Department inspector general to review “this and other cases”.

Trump “attempted to use the Department as a club against his political opponents and members of the media,” Schiff said in a statement.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi also called for an investigation, describing what the New York Times reported as “horrifying.”

“These actions appear to be another heinous attack on our democracy by the former president,” he said in a statement.