Capitol Hill continues to reel from the recent bombshell report that during the Trump administration, the Justice Department secretly seized phone, email and other records of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as aides, reporters and their family members in an effort to pursue leaks of classified investigations.

But on Tuesday, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who serves as the House GOP Conference Chair, defended the Justice Department's decision.

Stefanik, a Donald Trump loyalist, recently replaced Liz Cheney as conference chair. In defending the secret subpoenas, Stefanik also attacked Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a fierce critic of Trump and one of the House Intelligence Committee members to have his phone data seized.

“Having served on the House Intelligence Committee, we've seen illegal leaks from our colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee, and there have been numerous referrals to the Department of Justice,” Stefanik said in a news conference. “So I think it's important that the Department of Justice determine if there were any illegal leaks, leaks by members of Congress, or their staff members.

“Let's also be perfectly clear here that Adam Schiff, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, released information regarding the ranking member, Devin Nunes, his phone calls, as well as [to] reporters,” she added.

“That is unethical. Frankly, I believe that's illegal.”

Schiff denied that he and the intelligence committee were involved in the leaked reports of Nunes, a California Republican, who has faced ethics complaints.

"Chairman Schiff never issued subpoenas for phone records for Members, despite many false assertions otherwise. As a member of our committee, Rep. Stefanik should know better," Schiff spokeswoman Lauren French said in an email to The Hill. "We should all focus on getting answers and making sure the DOJ is never weaponized for political purposes ever again, not spreading falsehoods like these to defend President Trump and the destructive actions of his administration.”

Schiff blasted Trump and the administration's Justice Department on Tuesday in an op-ed in the Washington Post.

"Over his four years in office, Trump baselessly accused me of treason, of leaking classified information, of engaging in unspecified corruption and other offenses. He said I should be investigated and prosecuted, and that someone needed to 'do something' about me," Schiff's column reads.

"Last month, I learned that Apple had been served a subpoena by the Justice Department in 2018 seeking records from more than a dozen accounts belonging to two members of Congress, committee staff and even family members — one of whom was a minor. There is a lot we don’t know, including how the department came to seek those records and whether prosecutors understood what records they were requesting. We still don’t know whether only Democrats were the subjects of these requests or whether the investigation was properly predicated. The department has yet to explain."