Trump Justice Department sought records of Washington Post reporters after Russia report

The Justice Department under President Trump sought records of several journalists working at The Washington Post after they authored a report on the subject of the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory, the newspaper announced this week.

In its report on the controversy, the Post said that the government on May 3 of this year notified two of its current reports and one former reporter that the Justice Department had sought records of their phone calls made between April and July of 2017. 

The reporters – Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous – had during that time period authored a report claiming that then-Sen. Jeff Sessions had discussed the 2016 Trump campaign with a Russian ambassador. The report had relied upon classified government material as a source. 

The department said in a statement this week that it "follows the established procedures within its media guidelines policy when seeking legal process to obtain telephone toll records and non-content email records from media members as part of a criminal investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information."

Acting Post Editor Cameron Barr said the paper was "deeply troubled by this use of government power to seek access to the communications of journalists."