Trump first-term inquiry into leakers led to invasive searches, report finds

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

40% : Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to bring the DoJ under direct White House control, in contrast with the quasi-independent status it has held since the Watergate era.
36% : Although Michael Horowitz's 96-page report did not identify those whose records had been searched, CNN reported that they included Kash Patel, whom Trump has nominated to be the next FBI director.
32% : Since his first presidency , Trump has pledged to jail reporters who do not divulge their sources on stories he considers to have national security implications - a threat now carrying greater weight with his return to the White House imminent.
28% : The phone records of two Congress members and 43 staffers - including 21 Democrats and 20 Republicans, along with two holding non-partisan roles - were sought in an aggressive effort to find the source of leaks following the firing of James Comey, the former FBI director, who was ousted by Trump.
4% : Others included the then House member, and recently elected Democratic senator, Adam Schiff - branded as an "enemy within" by Trump in his successful recent presidential election campaign - and Eric Swalwell, another Democratic representative.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.