The Trump Organization secretly sought and obtained the phone and email records of a CNN correspondent.
On May 13, the Justice Department sent CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr a letter informing her that prosecutors obtained her phone and email records from two months between June 1, 2017, and July 31, 2017. The letter detailed the specific forms of contacts taken secretly obtained, including Starr’s Pentagon extension, the CNN Pentagon booth phone number, and her home and cell phones. They also found her work and personal email accounts, the news outlet reports.
This is the latest move federal prosecutors have made in targeting journalists in leak investigations. There are no details on when the probe was launched or whether the investigation was started during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ term or Attorney General William Barr’s. Prosecutors also don’t know what the Trump Organization was looking for in Starr’s records. However, prosecutors do know the records were being looked into through courts last year. CNN reports the Justice Department has confirmed Starr wasn’t a target of any probe.
This is the third instance now where it has been revealed that the Trump Organization used its Justice Department to secretly obtain contacts and communications of journalists or exposed the identity of people who are against Donald Trump.
” CNN strongly condemns the secret collection of any aspect of a journalist’s correspondence, which is clearly protected by the First Amendment,” said CNN President Jeff Zucker. “We are asking for an immediate meeting with the Justice Department for an explanation.”
