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The administration of ex-US President Donald Trump secretly monitored journalists' phones four years ago, according to the Washington Post.
The newspaper itself was affected.
Accordingly, the reporters Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller as well as their former colleague Adam Entous have now been officially informed that the US Department of Justice has private and professional telephone and cell phone data from April to July 2017.
The paper published a statement from editor-in-chief Cameron Barr on Friday (local time).
He said, "We are deeply concerned about this use of government power to gain access to journalists' communications." The US Department of Justice must immediately identify the reasons for "this intrusion" into the work of journalists.
The work of journalists is under the protection of the first amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press.
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The civil rights organization ACLU accused the ministry of "spying on" the reporters.
“That should never have happened,” wrote ACLU in the online service Twitter.
"When a government spies on journalists and their sources, it is endangering the freedom of the press."
It was about Trump's connections to Russia
The Justice Department letters did not inform reporters why their phones were tapped.
Presumably it was about determining the sources for reports that were published in the early days of the Trump administration.
The three journalists had reported on the investigation into possible links between Trump's campaign team and Russia.
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Nakashima, Miller and Entous, who no longer works for the newspaper, are said to have been informed of the confiscation of their phone data on May 3rd.
The Ministry of Justice received data on their landline, business or cell phone numbers, it said.
The data covered the period from April 15, 2017 to July 31, 2017, reported the Washington Post (Paywall).
Even under Obama criticism of the Justice Department's actions
The US Department of Justice's guidelines for obtaining data from the news media in connection with investigations into allegedly prohibited media releases were revised after criticism of the conduct of the administration of then US President Barack Obama.
The practices at the time were considered too aggressive and hostile towards the media.
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who served under Trump, announced a new crackdown on alleged disclosure of national security information to the media in 2017.