All 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Attorney General Pam Bondi a letter Wednesday night expressing “deep concern” about her recent decision to rescind legal protections afforded journalists from federal law enforcement subpoenas — and demanding to know whether the Department of Justice has already begun targeting reporters.
“The free press is a bedrock of our democracy and reporters must be able to do their jobs without fear of being investigated or prosecuted,” said the letter signed by every Democrat on the committee that oversees the DOJ.
The letter noted that Bondi’s April 25 memo, which reverses a Biden-era policy put in place by her predecessor, appears to directly contradict a promise she made to senators when asking for their confirmation vote just three months earlier.
“When asked at your confirmation hearing to commit to ‘respect the importance of a free press,’ you said ‘absolutely.’ Yet your decision to rescind important limits on the Justice Department’s ability to compel information from the press threatens the ability of journalists to fully perform their critical jobs, as guaranteed by the First Amendment,” the letter states.
The change in DOJ policy reflects President Donald Trump’s broader view of the press. He has repeatedly labeled some journalists the “enemy of the people,” and he’s suggested journalists could deserve jail time.
During the Biden administration’s first months, then-AG Merrick Garland issued a memo stating that “the Department of Justice will no longer use compulsory legal process for the purpose of obtaining information from or records of members of the news media acting within the scope of newsgathering activities.” It was a vow that federal law enforcement would not serve a subpoena forcing journalists to give up information or face arrest — and potentially extensive jail time.
Bondi reversed that last month in a memo that stated the DOJ under her direction “will continue to employ procedural protections to limit the use of compulsory legal process” targeting reporters and claimed this would be an “extraordinary measure to be deployed as a last resort.” However, the memo revealed its politically-charged nature with a line that clarified it was driven by loyalty to the current president.
“This Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people,” it stated.
The letter Democrats sent Bondi seized on that line.
“In other words, under this new guidance, there is little protection for journalists who publish any story critical of the administration from being threatened with a subpoena and litigation to enforce the subpoena,” they wrote.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar led the effort to have all Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sign the letter, including Ranking Member Dick Durbin and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker and Mazie Hirono. No Republicans signed the letter.
Bondi’s directive hinted at how aggressive this presidential administration is willing to get with this policy by citing an April 9 Trump executive order. That order acted on the president’s personal grudge against a former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff who famously penned an anonymous New York Times op-ed titled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” Bondi’s memo quotes a portion of that executive order that says government employee leaks to news media are “ultimately designed to sow chaos and distrust in Government — this conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous.”
It’s not the first time Trump has lodged the accusation of treason, which is a capital crime punishable by death.
Wednesday’s letter points out that this new law enforcement policy essentially pesters journalists to scare away potential sources from reaching out to them.
“This change will also deter whistleblowers from coming forward with information to the news media, depriving the public of valuable information about its government. Whistleblowers that violate the law — for example by disclosing classified information — should be subject to the legal consequences of that action, but the government should not be allowed to intimidate or harass journalists who lawfully report the news,” these Democrats wrote.
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Jose Pagliery is a reporter at NOTUS. Have tips? You can reach Jose on Signal at: 305-710-6090.