By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Legislation moving through Congress that would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history would also allow eight Republican senators to seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for alleged privacy violations stemming from the Biden administration’s investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The bill, which passed the Senate on Monday, includes a clause that would allow lawmakers whose phone records were subpoenaed as part of that probe to sue the Justice Department for damages.
The legislation retroactively makes it illegal in most cases to obtain a senator’s phone data without disclosure, and allows those whose records were obtained to sue the Justice Department for $500,000 per violation, along with attorneys’ fees and costs. The Justice Department could opt to settle the lawsuits, rather than fight them in court.
“We will not rest until justice is served and those who were involved in this weaponization of government are held accountable,” Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, one of those whose records were seized, said in a statement.
Blackburn and the other seven senators – Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis – all voted for the bill.
Democrats said the bill allows certain Republicans to get hefty payouts from U.S. taxpayers.
“Not a cent for health care, but Republicans wrote in a corrupt cash bonus of at least $500k each,” Democratic Senator Patty Murray wrote on social media.
The records were part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss of the 2020 election to his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
Trump was charged in the case but it did not go to trial, having been delayed and buffeted by a series of legal challenges.
Smith dropped the case after Trump won the 2024 election, citing a longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. He issued a report saying the evidence he gathered would have been enough to convict Trump at trial.
Senators have demanded details from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile of the extent to which they turned over data under subpoenas.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell)
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