TELL US MORE

DOJ: Member of ‘News Media’ Was Eyed in Mueller Russia Probe

Investigators reportedly believed the unidentified person was involved in the plot to hack and leak Democratic emails.

An unidentified person working in “the news media” was suspected by federal investigators of conspiring to “unlawfully obtain” and leak Democratic emails ahead of the 2016 presidential election during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, The New York Times reports. The Justice Department dropped the bombshell on Wednesday in an amendment to a report detailing its use of law enforcement tools against the news media in 2018. “In connection with an investigation into an alleged conspiracy involving persons or entities associated with a foreign government hacking the computers of a United States political party’s central organization,” the Justice Department authorized a subpoena for the phone and email records of “a member of the news media suspected of participating in the conspiracy,” the DOJ said in the filing. The unnamed media figure was later subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, according to the filing. It was unclear, however, if that testimony ever took place. No information was provided in the filing on what led investigators to suspect the “member of the news media” of taking part in the election plot.