Yahoo News published a detailed report about the investigation. It also revealed that the Counter Network Division had accessed records of members of Congress and staffers.
Federal investigators were told by Jeffrey Rambo that he was an agent who admitted to running checks on journalists in 2017. Yahoo News quoted Rambo as saying, “When a name comes onto your desk, you run it through all the systems you have access to, that’s just standard practice, that’s what everybody does.”
The AP received a redacted copy from the Homeland Security Department’s inspector General. It contained the same statement but the speaker’s name was blacked out. The Homeland Security Department includes the border protection agency.
These revelations sparked alarm among news organizations and led to a request for an explanation.
Lauren Easton, AP’s Director of Media Relations, stated in a statement that she was deeply concerned by the apparent abuse of power. “This seems to be an example where journalists are being targeted for simply doing what they do, which is a violation the First Amendment.”
Customs and Border Protection didn’t address the issue in its own statement. However, it stated that “CBP vetting and investigation operations, including the Counter Network Division, were strictly governed” by established protocols and best practices. CBP doesn’t investigate individuals unless there is a legal and legitimate basis.
Rambo’s small shopfront in San Diego’s Barrio Logan was owned by an employee of Storymakers Coffee Roasters. The worker said that Rambo wasn’t available for comment Saturday. He lives in San Diego.
These disclosures are the latest example of federal agencies using their power in order to review the contacts of journalists.
In a formal prohibition of prosecutors seizing records of journalists involved in leak investigations, Attorney General Merrick Garland made this decision earlier this year. This was in direct violation of years-old department policy. After revelations that the Trump Justice Department had seized records belonging to journalists and Democratic members of Congress, their aides, and Don McGahn, a former White House counsel.
During the Obama administration federal investigators secretly seized telephone records of some editors and reporters at the AP. These seizures included both cellphones and office lines.
The extent of Rambo’s and the unit’s use of databases was greater than ever before. Rambo and two other Homeland Security employees were referred by the inspector general to criminal prosecution for misusing government databases and lying. However, the Justice Department refused to bring them to trial.
Rambo complained to Yahoo News about the fact that Customs and Border Protection had not stood by Rambo and that he was unfairly depicted in news reports.
He said that he was not a law enforcement officer that was accused of wrongdoing and who had a real purpose for doing what he was doing. “CBP refuses that, refuses that, refuses that to correct that wrong.”
Rambo was previously identified as the agent that accessed Ali Watkins’ travel records and asked her questions about secret sources. Watkins is now a writer for The New York Times.
Rambo was assigned to the Border Agency Unit, which is part of the National Targeting Center, Sterling, Virginia in 2017. Investigators were told that he approached Watkins initially to discuss forced labor as a national security concern.
According to an unredacted summary, Yahoo News obtained from him, he also mentioned similar efforts with Martha Mendoza (AP reporter), the summary said. Rambo’s unit was able to vet Martha Mendoza as a reputable journalist, according to the summary. They also tried to establish a relationship because of her writing on forced labor. Mendoza was part of a team that covered slave labor in Southeast Asia’s fishing industry and won her the second Pulitzer Prize.
Rambo’s Washington supervisor, Dan White, said that his unit ran Mendoza through several databases and that “CBP discovered one of Mendoza’s phone numbers was connected to a terrorist,” Yahoo News reported. White’s case was also referred to the prosecution, but he declined.
Easton of AP responded that “The Associated Press requires an immediate explanation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection about why journalists, including Martha Mendoza, were run through databases used for tracking terrorists and identified potential confidential informant recruits.”
Rambo reached out to Watkins to initiate the inspector general’s probe. Rambo initially sought out Watkins to help him with his forced labor work, but quickly switched the attention to a leak investigation. Rambo gave the operation a name, Operation Whistle Pig, in honor of the whiskey Watkins drank at a Washington, D.C. bar in June 2017.
James Wolfe, who was a former security chief for the Senate Intelligence Committee and had a close relationship with Watkins, is the only person to be charged and convicted in connection with Rambo’s efforts. Wolfe pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI regarding his contacts with reporters.
Rambo was extensively questioned about Watkins’ interest during conversations with FBI agents. Rambo used his travel records to confront Watkins about her relationship to Wolfe and claimed that Wolfe was her source of stories. Watkins admitted to the relationship but said Wolfe didn’t provide any information for her stories.
Rambo stated that Watkins wasn’t the only reporter whose records were accessed through government databases. However, he claimed in interviews with the FBI that Wolfe was the only one he was interested in. Rambo stated that he conducted CBP records checks on “15 to twenty national security reporters”, according to an FBI summary of the questioning.
Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for the New York Times, stated that Watkins’ investigation has revealed new concerns.
“We are deeply disturbed to learn that U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted this investigation into the sources of a journalist. The attorney general stated clearly that the government must stop using leak investigations to undermine journalism. Customs and Border Protection should make public all details of this investigation in order to prevent this type of wrong conduct from happening again.
Watkins stated that she was also deeply troubled by the “lengths CBP/DHS personnel went to identify journalistic sources and probe into my personal life.” It was chilling back then and still is.