US Lawmakers Demand Investigation Into Trump Administration’s Secret Surveillance of Americans Two U.S. congressional Democrats, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal, have called on a government watchdog to investigate the Trump administration’s use of an obscure legal tool to secretly collect records from journalists, non-profits, and unions without judicial oversight. Their request, disclosed to The Guardian, follows revelations that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has leveraged administrative summonses—typically used for customs-related matters—to demand sensitive information from private entities, including tech companies and media outlets. The lawmakers directed their inquiry to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, urging an examination of how the DHS has expanded the scope of these summonses beyond their intended purpose. The controversy centers on the DHS’s investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which has used administrative summonses to obtain records from individuals and organizations without prior judicial approval. A notable case involves Georgia Fort, a Minneapolis-based journalist, and Don Lemon, a television anchor, who were targeted after federal prosecutors charged them with civil rights violations related to their coverage of a protest at a church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. HSI issued an administrative summons to Google, requesting access to the YouTube accounts of Fort and Lemon. This occurred despite a federal judge’s rejection of a search warrant application, which had previously ruled that the government needed to provide a legal basis for accessing their communications.#department_of_homeland_security #government_accountability_office #us_congressional_democrats #ron_wyden #pramila_jayapal
