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Trump justice department officials in the US secretly obtained phone records of journalists working for the Washington Post newspaper.

Home, mobile and office telephones of the three reporters were accessed for three months in 2017, the Post said.

The paper said this was related to its reporting of the Russian role in the 2016 presidential election that brought Donald Trump into office.

The Post said it was “deeply troubled by this use of government power“.

The justice department (DoJ) defended its actions, which were meant to identify government sources who had passed classified information to the reporters.

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