Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research, a watchdog group, has filed a motion in federal court to unseal documents related to the Justice Department’s subpoenas of the personal phone and email records of members of Congress during the Trump-Russia investigation. The group argues that the matter is of significant public interest and reveals that the DOJ imposed nondisclosure orders on Google to prevent users from being notified that their records were targeted. The initial subpoena was renewed three times, targeting congressional staff and members of Congress from both political parties.
The founder of Empower Oversight, Jason Foster, received notice in October 2023 that the Justice Department had obtained and served a subpoena on Google in 2017 for records associated with his Google email address and two Google Voice telephone numbers. Foster worked in the U.S. Senate as the chief investigative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time. The DOJ’s subpoena compelled Google to release records related to Foster’s accounts and those of other Google customers, potentially including confidential whistleblowers providing information to Congress about government misconduct.
The Justice Department obtained non-disclosure orders that prevented Google from notifying anyone of the existence of the subpoena, depriving the public of information about the basis for these orders. The subpoenas appear to be related to the leak of confidential information that led to the prosecution and guilty plea of former Senate Intelligence Committee Security Director James Wolfe. Republican Senators Chuck Grassley, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee began investigating the subpoenas and the DOJ’s efforts to collect private phone and email logs in November.
Back in 2018, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to subpoena personal records belonging to House Intelligence Committee staffers during a confrontation over the DOJ’s failure to comply with the committee’s compulsory process. Google has seen an increase in non-disclosure orders from federal prosecutors, which delay user notification and the opportunity to contest demands for data in court. The company supports the bipartisan NDO Fairness Act to ensure that gag orders are issued only when warranted and for reasonable periods.
The investigation that prompted the subpoenas began under the Trump administration, and Empower Oversight is calling for the unsealing of records related to the investigation due to the multiple layers of secrecy surrounding the case. The group questions whether the DOJ withheld important information from Google and the court, potentially to protect the identities of confidential whistleblowers. The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter, and the outcome of the motion to unseal the documents remains to be seen.
