The discovery urged the news outlet to oblige an excuse for the "intrusion" that raises serious First Amendment issues, to which the agency, now under the Biden administration, said was meant to crack down on exposures of classified information.
Three separate letters dated Monday addressed to Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, and Adam Entous notified them that the department "received toll records associated with the following telephone numbers for the period from April 15, 2017 to July 31, 2017" through use of warrant power, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
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The letters showed a cell phone and work phone numbers connected to the reporters. The phone records show caller history and how long calls continued but did not contain what was said. The letters also said the Justice Department got a court order to obtain their email records but did not get them.
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The Friday report notes that during the targeted time was when the journalists were reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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Nakashima and Miller still report for the outlet, while Entous has passed on to the New Yorker.
"We are deeply troubled by this use of government power to seek access to the communications of journalists," said Cameron Barr, the Washington Post's acting executive editor. "The Department of Justice should immediately make clear its reasons for this intrusion into the activities of reporters doing their jobs, an activity protected under the First Amendment."
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In response to the disclosures, the Justice Department generally outlined how it would seek such documents for a criminal leaks investigation.
"While rare, the Department follows the established procedures within its media guidelines policy when seeking legal process to obtain telephone toll records and non-content email records from media members as part of a criminal investigation into unauthorized disclosure of classified information," Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the Justice Department, told the outlet.
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Raimondi added the "targets" of such examinations are not news media recipients, but rather the inquiries are for those with passage to national defense data who provided it to the media and "thus failed to protect it as lawfully required."
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The report said the letters do not specify when the agency leadership supported the work to solicit the journalists' records but mentioned a DOJ spokesperson who said the decision was made in 2020. William Barr, who was attorney general throughout that year until just before Christmas, declined comment to the outlet.
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