an agent in the field or a line ausa in some u.s. attorney's office. that is something that would have very high level involvement and approval from the highest levels of both the fbi and doj. >> if the case was focused on a staffer at least initially is it odd that apple was under a prolonged gag order and that congressmen schiff and swalwell only found out just recently their records had been subpoenaed? >> the purpose of a gag order in a case like this, and i can tell you from my own experience supervising, overseeing many of them in the fbi, is to ensure the target of the investigation isn't notified about the investigative activity that is taking place. and that is pretty legitimate. the question here is how long did those gag orders stay maintained and renewed even after the investigation moved on and they apparently were no longer interested in this staffer? that raises serious questions of about, were they using the gag