Trump s Commerce Chief Oversaw Security Unit That Spied On Census Critics
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
During Donald Trump s four years as president, his administration was a revolving door. But one person who was part of the Trump Administration throughout most of his presidency was former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who started in February 2017 and stayed until February 2021. The Department of Commerce, as journalist Shawn Boburg reports in an article published by the
Washington Post on May 24, has had an obscure security unit that was tasked with protecting its officials and facilities and during its Trump/Ross era, according to Boburg, it evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the Department.
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The obscure Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) used tactics, including broad keyword searches on employee emails and scouring Americans’ social media for criticism of the census, to gather information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, documents and interviews show.
Commerce Department security unit evolved into counterintelligence-like operation, Washington Post examination found Shawn Boburg An American flag flies outside the Commerce Department headquarters in Washington. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News) An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department’s officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found. The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees’ offices at night, ran broad keyword searches of their emails trying to surface signs of foreign influence and scoured Americans’ social media for critical comments about the census, according to documents and interviews with five former investigators.