Deputy Attorney General Walks Back Attorney General's Threat To Journalists

from the house-divided-against-itself--FOUR-MORE-YEARS!-FOUR-MORE-YEARS! dept

Because this administration rarely seems to agree with itself, another recent pronouncement is being rolled back by someone within the same agency that made statements to the opposite effect only days earlier. Let me explain:

On Friday, Jeff Sessions held a press briefing on national security leaks, stating the DOJ was aggressively pursuing several leak investigations. That these investigations would most likely discourage actual whistleblowers was assumed, but not stated. Sessions didn't directly state he was rolling back previous DOJ policy to start targeting journalists who published leaked documents, but he did say this:

I have listened to career investigators and prosecutors about how to most successfully investigate and prosecute these matters. At their suggestion, one of the things we are doing is reviewing policies affecting media subpoenas. We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited. They cannot place lives at risk with impunity. We must balance their role with protecting our national security and the lives of those who serve in our intelligence community, the armed forces, and all law abiding Americans.

This appeared to indicate the DOJ was taking the gloves off and would be going after journalists who refused to reveal their sources. Sessions refused to answer a direct question about the issue before ending the press conference, echoing his non-answer on the same subject during his confirmation hearing.

Two days later, the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, has walked back some of what was implied during Friday's press briefing.

Speaking to Fox News Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein emphasized that the department’s renewed effort to prosecute leaks of classified information was not aimed at the news media.

“We’re after the leakers, not the journalists,” he said. “We don’t prosecute journalists for doing their jobs.“

It's only a partial rollback. Rosenstein wouldn't 100% rule out journalists being charged with crimes if the publication of documents was somehow criminal. (Not sure how often that would actually be the case, but the DOJ has a pretty vivid imagination sometimes.) But it sounds like the DOJ isn't going to start pushing for contempt charges if journalists refuse to turn over info when subpoenaed.

Of course, this could all change again in the next few days. The Trump Administration has been nothing if not schizophrenic, with officials offering contradictory statements and the president's own tweets/statements routinely refuted by department heads, cabinet members, and the government's lawyers.

Filed Under: chilling effects, doj, first amendment, free speech, freedom of the press, intimidation, jeff sessions, rod rosenstein, subpoenas