The Daily Fuckup

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on June 14, 2021, that the committee would open an investigation into Justice Department surveillance and records collection involving members of Congress, congressional staffers, and the news media. The statement came after the Justice Department’s inspector general had already announced its own review on June 11, 2021, into DOJ’s use of subpoenas and other legal authorities to obtain communication records from those groups in leak investigations. ([nadler.house.gov](https://nadler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394671&utm_source=openai))

Nadler’s announcement was framed around compulsory process, nondisclosure orders, and the handling of records requests during the Trump administration. The House committee said it would investigate the practice; it did not issue findings that day and did not establish that any unlawful surveillance had occurred. That distinction matters because the June 14 action was an opening step, not a completed factual conclusion. ([nadler.house.gov](https://nadler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394671&utm_source=openai))

The inspector general’s review focused on DOJ’s use of subpoenas and other legal authorities to obtain communication records of members of Congress and affiliated persons, as well as the news media. DOJ’s later report said the department had used compulsory process to seek non-content communications records from members of Congress, congressional staffers, and members of the news media between 2017 and 2020. ([oig.justice.gov](https://oig.justice.gov/news/doj-oig-initiates-review-department-justices-use-subpoenas-and-other-legal-authorities-obtain?utm_source=openai))

That set up a straightforward oversight question for the House panel: who approved the requests, what rules governed them, and whether DOJ followed its own policies when the targets were lawmakers and journalists. On June 14, Nadler said the committee would pursue those answers. He did not claim the investigation had already proven abuse. ([nadler.house.gov](https://nadler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394671&utm_source=openai))