Trump DOJ officials may have used media leaks to interfere with 2020 election: report

07 January

The Department of Justice's internal watchdog released a report Tuesday finding some of the agency's officials under Donald Trump's first presidency "may have violated federal law" ahead of the 2020 election "by pushing for pandemic-related investigations that targeted states with Democratic governors," ABC News exclusively reports.

Furthermore, ABC reports that the same officials may have leaked "private information about those investigations to friendly media outlets in a potential attempt to influence the election," according to the watchdog.

The report, which the news outlet has obtained less than two weeks before Trump takes the White House once more, notes that a senior member of the DOJ's public affairs team sent a text message less than a month before the 2020 election "describing a proposed leak to a major New York-area tabloid about reviews of COVID-related deaths at nursing homes in New York and New Jersey as 'our last play on them before [the] election' -- 'but it's a big one,' he added."

That same senior public affairs team member, according to the watchdog's report, first launched the alleged ploy to leak the information to media.

ABC reports, "In late August 2020, when the Justice Department then sent letters to the governors of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York seeking relevant data -- 'despite having been provided data indicating that the nursing homes with the most significant quality of care issues were in other states' -- the Justice Department's public affairs office issued a press release about the move," according to the report.

The inspector general's report, ABC notes, mentioned that "current and former officials more recently described the press release as 'unusual and inappropriate.'"

ABC News' full report is available here.

From Your Site Articles