The Department of Justice successfully ordered Google not to notify members of Congress or their staff for five consecutive years that their communications had been subpoenaed in 2017, according to former congressional investigator Jason Foster.
He had previously revealed in October that Google notified him that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had obtained his communication records in September 2017.
Mr. Foster told host John Solomon on Nov. 14 that Google has since provided him with notifications the company received from the courts, signed by magistrate judges, showing that for the past five years, the DOJ had successfully asked a federal magistrate to delay notifying him that his data had been subpoenaed.
“These are orders from the court that says to Google, you’re not allowed to tell Jason or anybody else, any of his Democrat and Republican colleagues—whose information, whose phone records and text records you saw—you’re not allowed to tell them that we subpoenaed those records or that you gave them up,” he said.
“That was in the initial request that was for a one-year time frame. And then they renewed it every year, in September or August of every year, for the next five years,” he said.
Mr. Foster retired from working for Congress in 2019.
He told the publication that he is doubtful the DOJ would still be running the investigation six years later.
“There was no legitimate reason to keep it secret,” he said. “I think they just wanted to hide the broad nature of the dragnet for communications from senators’ staff and congressmen’s staff.”
Initial Notification
In October, Mr. Foster revealed that tech giant Google had notified him that the company had complied with a compulsory process from the DOJ requesting phone records and text logs related to his Google Voice telephone number between December 2016 and May 2017.Attached to the notification was a copy of a grand jury subpoena dated Sept. 12, 2017, he said.
“The particular phone number that I got the notice on was one that was actually used by my wife, forwarded to our home phone, and my wife’s cellphone; not something anybody ever would have contacted a reporter on,” Mr. Foster said.
Mr. Foster added that, given the time frame of the dates the DOJ was seeking information on, he believes the records were likely subpoenaed as part of the FBI’s investigation focusing on the now disproven Trump–Russia collusion narrative.
He further said he believes other congressional staffers’ records were also likely seized.
Jordan Demands Documents From Tech Companies
Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) ordered Big Tech giants including Apple and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to hand over information regarding the DOJ’s attempts to surveil members of Congress—both Democrats and Republicans— and their staff via their private emails and phone records after multiple current and former Senate and House staff were informed by the firms that their email or phone records had been seized by the DOJ via a grand jury subpoena six years ago.
That information included mailing addresses, residential addresses, business addresses, email addresses, and personal telephone numbers belonging to Mr. Patel and another unnamed staffer, according to Mr. Jordan.
Mr. Foster, who conducted oversight and investigations as counsel to four congressional committees in the U.S. House and Senate, said Tuesday he is now concerned that whistleblowers may fear coming forward in the future amid fears of surveillance by the DOJ or that their anonymity will no longer be protected.
He also raised concerns regarding constitutional speech and attorney-client privilege issues.
His nonprofit organization, Empower Oversight, has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to shed light on what it says is possible “wrongdoing” by the DOJ.
“If they’re watching my phone records, and they know who I’m talking to, and they can guess or figure out who I’m talking to, that’s going to kill whistleblowers from talking to me,” he said.
