Top DOJ national security official resigning amid uproar over leak investigation: report

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) top national security lawyer is resigning from his post amid revelations the department secretly sought the records of journalists and Democratic lawmakers, The Associated Press reported Monday.

John Demers, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s national security division, will leave by the end of next week, the news service reported.

His resignation comes as the DOJ is under increasing scrutiny for its handling of leak investigations initiated under the Trump administration that sought the records of House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and member Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), journalists from three media outlets and even former White House counsel Don McGahn.

Under the Biden administration, the DOJ continued to pursue gag orders against media companies, seeking to block them from alerting those whose records had been seized.

Demers has served in the role since February of 2018, beginning shortly after some of the subpoenas to major communications companies had been issued.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had called on Demers to testify before the committee along with former Attorneys General William Barr and Jeff Sessions, who served in the Trump administration.

Demers’s resignation comes as Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the DOJ would review its policies for collecting records from lawmakers in parallel with a wide-ranging probe being conducted by the agency’s inspector general.

“While that review is pending, I have instructed the Deputy Attorney General, who is already working on surfacing potentially problematic matters deserving high level review, to evaluate and strengthen the department’s existing policies and procedures for obtaining records of the Legislative branch,” Garland said in a statement on Monday.