Republican lawmakers grill telecom officials over phone records access in Trump investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican lawmakers decried Tuesday what they said were invasive tactics in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, pressing representatives from leading telecommunications companies about their role in providing prosecutors with phone records of certain sitting members of Congress.

“I think what you’ve done here is outrageous. And I think the implications for the privacy of the American people are absolutely appalling,” said Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who was among the Republicans in Congress whose records were accessed by prosecutors as they examined contacts between the president and allies on Capitol Hill.

Lawyers for the companies defended their actions at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, stressing they had followed the law by turning over records under a subpoena even as they also acknowledged that more could be done to respect lawmakers' expectations of privacy.

“We were compelled to provide this information under the law, and we complied. No matter who is the target of a subpoena Verizon cannot ignore a valid legal demand or a court order," said Chris Miller, the senior vice president and general counsel of Verizon's consumer group. “But our processes could have been better suited to meet what was a new and unique set of circumstances for us, and for other companies.”

Fallout from the subpoenas

The hearing afforded Republican lawmakers their first opportunity to confront phone company representatives over the revelation that special counsel Jack Smith's team obtained the records of Republican lawmakers whom Trump was imploring on Jan. 6, 2021 to halt the congressional certification of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The records showed when the calls were placed and how long they lasted but did not capture the content of the conversations.

All told, subpoenas were issued for phone records of 20 current or former Republican members of Congress, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democrats called the Republican outrage misplaced in light of the violence of Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, and noted that the tactic used by Smith was standard in criminal investigations and was understandable in this instance given Trump's efforts to reach lawmakers.

“Let me start by rejecting the notion that the Department of Justice's investigation into the attack on the Capitol was worse than the attack on the Capitol,” said Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

That point was echoed by Mike Romano, a former Justice Department prosecutor who helped oversee prosecutions of Capitol rioters.

“When I first first learned of this hearing, I was surprised. I was surprised because from my perspective as a long-serving federal prosecutor, there is nothing remotely scandalous or controversial about the collection of toll records,” Romano said.

He added: “I understand that some of you had your records collected and are unhappy about that, and that’s understandable. Nobody enjoys having the government collect their information. But apart from that, I’m happy to say you were not harmed.”

Companies defend their actions

Lawyers for the telecommunications companies stressed that the Smith subpoenas were treated like the hundreds of thousands of similar demands they receive from law enforcement each year. They also noted that the subpoenas from Smith's team offered limited information and context.

Miller, the Verizon representative, testified that the subpoenas his company received “did not include any names or any other information identifying these numbers as belonging” to members of Congress and that a non-disclosure order from a judge barred the company from alerting the targeted lawmakers.

A representative for T-Mobile similarly said none of the subpoenas the company fielded sought records from Senate business lines.

Two subpoenas in January 2023 to AT&T sought records about a personal account, listed only a phone number and gave no indication that the requested information involved members of Congress, said David McAtee, a senior executive vice president and general counsel. The records were provided.

In a separate instance, the company's legal team responded to a subpoena from prosecutors by demanding information from Smith's team about how a legal protection afformed to lawmakers, known as the Constitution's “speech or debate” clause, might apply, McAtee said.

“The special counsel’s office never responded to that email — at least not substantively — and ultimately the office abandoned the subpoena and no records were produced," he said.

He said the company was working on a process that it would allow it to identify all phone numbers associated with a given member of Congress and not just the official numbers.

And Miller said Verizon was instituting a series of changes, including ensuring that senior company of leadership is notified before information on members of Congress is disclosed. The company will also notify a lawmaker, when possible, that their information is being sought — and will challenge any non-disclosure order that prevents them doing so, Miller said.