1 week Ago By Althea Legaspi
Donald Trump ’s Justice Department removed protections for journalists in investigations into leaks, allowing the government greater power to demand information. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a memo circulated Friday that she will rescind policies established by the Biden administration preventing the Justice Department from seeking records or compelling testimony from journalists in order to investigate leaks. The memo was published by Politico .
Bondi claimed that the Biden administration “abused” media protections put in place by Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s attorney general that largely barred federal prosecutors from obtaining phone records and other private communications from journalists during investigations. She asserted that Biden’s Justice Department engaged “in selective leaks in support of failed lawfare campaigns,” citing a New York Times report about the investigation into the violent insurrection at the U.S.
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “This Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people,” Bondi wrote.
“The perpetrators of these leaks,” she added, “aid our foreign adversaries by spilling sensitive and sometimes classified information on to [sic] the Internet. The damage is significant and irreversible. Accountability, including criminal prosecutions, is necessary to set a new course.
” The decision allows the Trump administration to use subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants in order to investigate leaks. Bondi maintained that the Justice Department would still use “procedural protections,” and that the investigations would be a “last resort.” In Bondi’s memo, she referenced a story about Dan Caldwell, an adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who was put on leave, allegedly for “an unauthorized disclosure.
” She also complained about continued “leaks of classified information,” with references to Washington Post and New York Times articles about a secret intelligence assessment that went against Trump’s claim that the Venezuelan government controls the Tren de Aragua gang. That claim is central to Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, the infamous 1798 wartime law, and send them to prison in El Salvador, on the basis that they are supposed members of the gang. In December, attorneys close to Trump spoke with Rolling Stone about the administration’s plan to increase pressure on the news media and whistleblowers .
“Oh, it’ll be brutal,” one conservative lawyer told Rolling Stone . “Gloves off [because] we’ve learned our lessons from the first time and one lesson is you have got to be even more aggressive.” Trump’s 2025 war on the media ramped up in February when the administration banned the Associated Press from attending events in the Oval Office due to it continuing to write the phrase “Gulf of Mexico,” instead of following Trump’s executive order dictating it be called the “Gulf of America.
” In April, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to give the Associated Press full access, but a reporter and photographer were banned from the Oval Office the next week. Trending Stories Trump Has Now Deported Multiple U.S.
Citizen Children With Cancer Wife of Weezer Bassist Seen Holding, 'Firing' Gun in Video Released by LAPD Virginia Giuffre, Who Stood Up for Victims of Sex Offender Jeffrey Epstein, Dies by Suicide Musk Allies Made FAA Staff Sign NDAs to Keep New Project Secret On Friday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom the Press condemned the Justice Department’s decision to revoke the Biden-era policy “Some of the most consequential reporting in U.S. history — from Watergate to warrantless wiretapping after 9/11 — was and continues to be made possible because reporters have been able to protect the identities of confidential sources and uncover and report stories that matter to people across the political spectrum,” Bruce Brown, the group’s president of said in a statement .
“Strong protections for journalists serve the American public by safeguarding the free flow of information.”.
