Two Top Democrats Ask Justice Department to Investigate FBI Leaks

The leaks include information given to Rudy Giuliani regarding the Clinton email probe.

Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Akron, Ohio, on August 22.Amy Harris/Rex Shutterstock via ZUMA Press

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Two top Democratic lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to investigate the leaks coming from the FBI in recent weeks regarding the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. It’s the first indication of what is likely to be a series of inquiries after the election into the FBI’s willingness to make public comments about its ongoing investigation and its inability to control leaks so close to a presidential election.

On Friday, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) sent a letter to Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz asking him to investigate the leaks, including evidence of leaks to Rudy Giuliani, a top adviser to Donald Trump. The letter cites Giuliani’s appearance Friday morning on Fox and Friends, during which he acknowledged receiving inside information from the FBI about Clinton’s investigation before the agency notified Congress of the information. “Did I hear about it?” Giuliani said on air. “You’re darn right I heard about it.” The letter also cites leaks to Fox News host Bret Baier, which resulted in the anchor retracting a story about the FBI’s investigation of the Clinton Foundation.

“These unauthorized and inaccurate leaks from within the FBI, particularly so close to a presidential election, are unprecedented,” the letter says. “For these reasons, we are calling on your office to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the sources of these and other leaks from the FBI and to recommend appropriate action.”

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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