Apple revealed to Don McGahn, a White House counsel under former President Trump, that the company complied with a 2018 Department of Justice subpoena regarding information on an account of his, according to a New York Times report.
Apple reportedly received the subpoena on Feb. 23, 2018, and turned over information to the government. It did not disclose to McGahn what information was turned over, and it isn’t clear how the information would have been used, the Times noted, adding that Apple was not able to tell McGahn at the time.
McGahn’s wife also received “a similar notice” from Apple, the Times reported, though the report does not indicate why.
A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia issued the subpoena, according to the newspaper.
The revelation comes amid news first reported by the Times that former Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions had subpoenaed Apple for data on more than a dozen people, including two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, after they heard about leaks within the Trump administration.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bashed the Trump administration’s use of subpoenas.
“In terms of the data mining, what the Republicans did, what the administration did, the Justice Department under the leadership of the former president, goes even beyond Richard Nixon,” Pelosi told host Dana Bash.
The Hill has reached out to Apple and the Department of Justice for comment.
Via The Hill