The Department of Justice has opened a criminal hacking probe into how behind-the-scenes footage of fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson was leaked to media organizations in recent months, according to a letter the federal agency sent the cable network that said that Justice “presently views Fox Corp. as one of the potential victim-witnesses of the alleged criminal conduct under investigation.”
Former President Donald Trump threatened journalists with prison rape Saturday, suggesting the federal government use violence as a way to combat leaks to the media from journalists.
“You take the writer and/or the publisher of the paper … and you say ‘Who is the leaker? National security,’” Trump explained to audiences during a rally in Robstown, Texas. “And they say ‘We’re not gonna tell you.’ They say ‘That’s OK, you’re going to jail.’ And when this person realizes he’s going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly, he will say ‘I’d very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker is!’”
Politico sent a memo to staff members on Tuesday saying it had restricted access to its offices and told security to be “extra vigilant” about visitors. The company also urged employees to consider removing their Politico affiliation on social media accounts. The company has not reported any specific threats.
Newly unsealed court files shed more light on a contentious leak investigation.
Government leak hunters have been ratcheting up pressure on the ability of journalists to do their jobs for a generation — a push fueled by changing technology and fraught national-security issues that arose after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, those tensions have reached an inflection point.
The disclosure of the aggressive leak investigation tactic followed a similar revelation involving The New York Times.
Exclusives
NEW DELHI (AP) — An India-based media technology company said Wednesday that it regrets the recent leak of an episode of the popular HBO series “Game of Thrones” by four of its […]
Justice Department officials are slated to meet with a nonprofit journalism organization on Thursday as the administration moves to revisit its rules on whether to subpoena reporters who receive classified information. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press will meet with individuals in the Justice Department’s public affairs office to discuss new subpoena guidelines.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday announced a government-wide crackdown on leakers, which will include a review of the Justice Department’s policies on subpoenas for media outlets that publish sensitive information.
The new White House communications director has become obsessed with leaks and threatened to fire staffers if he discovers that they have given unauthorized information to reporters. He started his conversation with The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza by threatening to fire the entire White House communications staff. It escalated from there into an obscenity-laden rant.
What We Wouldn’t Know Without Leakers
Margaret Sullivan: “In a government increasingly obsessed with secrecy, and guilty of rampant over-classification, leaks are necessary and, largely, a very good thing. Let’s look back at what we wouldn’t know without leaks, bearing in mind that not all leaks are created equal. Some are document dumps; others the result of dogged reporting and the cultivation of confidential sources.”
The Justice Department has gotten a warrant from the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — also known as the FISA court — to conduct electronic surveillance on a group of journalists who’ve been the recipient of leaked information.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked FBI Director James Comey on Monday whether reporters could be prosecuted for leaks — despite a longstanding tradition and court history of not prosecuting the press. Comey struggled to answer the question, saying it was something that had never been prosecuted “in my lifetime.”
The Justice Department announced revised guidelines for obtaining records from the news media during leak investigations, removing language that news organizations said was ambiguous and requiring additional consultation before a journalist can be subpoenaed.
The agency leaked classified material to reporters to shape the perception that its detention and interrogation program was an effective tool in thwarting terrorism, according to a Senate report released Tuesday.
What is ordinary about “ordinary newsgathering”? That question was at the heart of discussions Tuesday between Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and a group of media representatives over rules that guide federal prosecutors in their pursuit of leaks of classified information.
It is revising its rules for obtaining records from the news media in leak investigations, promising that in most instances the government will notify news organizations beforehand of its intention to do so. The revised procedures are designed to give news organizations an opportunity to challenge any subpoenas or search warrants in federal court.
The Committee to Protect Journalists conducted its first examination of U.S. press freedoms amid the Obama administration’s unprecedented number of prosecutions of government sources and seizures of journalists’ records. The report notes President Barack Obama came into office pledging an open, transparent government after criticizing the Bush administration’s secrecy, “but he has fallen short of his promise.”
The recent security and military leaks have received predictable criticism from the government, but a number of journalists have also lashed out at those who are closest to the stories.
President Barack Obama said recently that the Department of Justice’s monitoring of reporters as part of national security leak investigations could “chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.” As far as many journalists are concerned, the president couldn’t have been more right — despite last week’s leaks to the media about secret NSA surveillance programs.
Abramson Fears Reporting Being Criminalized
Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times, appeared with The Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward and The Daily Beast’s Daniel Klaidman on CBS’s Face The Nation. Abramson on the DOJ’s leaks investigations: “In all of these cases I think the important thing is there’s supposed to be a balance between the needs to prosecute leakers and a free press. And it appears that in the pursuit of these cases … that balance doesn’t seem to have been applied inside the department.”
Obama’s War On Leaks Hurts Journalism
Leonard Downie: “The Obama administration’s steadily escalating war on leaks, the most militant I have seen since the Nixon administration, has disregarded the First Amendment and intimidated a growing number of government sources of information — most of which would not be classified — that is vital for journalists to hold leaders accountable.”
When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material. They used security badge access records to track Fox chief Washington correspondent James Rosen’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit.
Journos Pushing To Limit Leaks Legislation
Journalists are worried about three provisions in legislation from Sen. Dianne Feinstein designed to stop intelligence leaks to the media that they see as too broad. Brian Weiss, a Feinstein spokesman, says lawmakers are weighing the criticisms. “The bill is a work in progress,” Weiss says. “Sen. Feinstein is looking at the comments and is open to changes as it moves forward in the Senate.”
Defense reporters want a straight answer from the Pentagon on whether it intends to listen to their phone calls, intercept their emails or spy on their workstations as part of its new plan to crack down on national security leaks.
In response to New York Times stories that relied on leaks of sensitive national security information, a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday discussed legislation that could allow journalists to be prosecuted for disclosing such information.
