A Department of Justice official appointed under Trump is stepping down at the end of next week amid backlash over investigations of leaks and subpoenas for the records of Democrats.
John Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, had planned his departure for the end of June, but now the resignation comes in the middle of questions about what he knew about the Justice Department’s efforts to secretly seize the phone data from House Democrats and reporters as part of the aggressive investigations into leaks.
Demers was the longest-serving Senate-confirmed official from the Trump administration to remain at the DOJ under the Biden administration. Demers would have supervised the prosecutors who seized the records of top House Democrats, as well as reporters from the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN.
Justice Department officials say that all appropriate approvals were given for those orders, meaning that the attorney general at the time, not Mr. Demers, signed off.
NYT
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Monday a strengthening of rules over concerns that sensitive matters were not flagged to higher levels as they should have been.
Sources: CNN, AP, and New York Times
