Senator Wyden Tells The DOJ It Needs To Stop Going After Journalists During Leak Investigations
from the if-they-aren't-a-target,-don't-target-them dept
Earlier this month, it was revealed the DOJ — while headed by Bill Barr and an extraordinarily leaky White House — decided it would be cool and constitutional to demand journalists’ phone and email records while supposedly investigating leaks pertaining to Trump’s first impeachment.
The DOJ apparently did manage to get the phone records. For whatever reason, it never bothered to collect the email metadata, despite having obtained a court order to do so. Nearly four years after this occurred, the Washington Post journalists were finally notified about the government’s interest in their communications.
The Justice Department’s statement was less than satisfactory. It claimed that this sort of First Amendment-troubling activity was “rare” and that it followed all of its internal guidelines when targeting journalists’ communications. It also claimed it was ok because the journalists weren’t the target of the investigation. All the DOJ wanted were their sources.
That’s not ok no matter what internal guidelines are followed. If the DOJ has a leak to investigate, it needs to confine itself to the end doing the leaking, not the recipients of the leaks. Just because it might be easier for investigators to work their way backwards from journalists’ communications to identify the source of leaks doesn’t make it acceptable. The ends don’t justify the means — not when the means wander across the constitutional lines.
Now the DOJ has (yet again) angered Senator Ron Wyden. Wyden has sent a letter [PDF] to Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanding he revamp the internal rules to make this sort of thing far less likely to reoccur. Wyden is also asking for full reports on any surveillance of journalists the DOJ engaged in over the last couple of years.
As Wyden points out, using subpoenas and court orders to sniff out journalists’ sources may be less disruptive than subjecting them to the justice system, but the end result is the same breach of trust and Constitutional protections.
In years past, the government would often attempt to force journalists to reveal their sources, by dragging them into court, where many chose to spend time in jail for contempt of court, rather than violate their oath to keep their sources’ identities hidden. Now that most Americans carry always-on, always-recording smartphones, the government prefers to go to telecommunications companies, hoping that records of calls and texts might reveal the source. While certainly more convenient for the government, using subpoenas and surveillance orders to pry into a journalist‘ communications history is no less invasive and destructive than forcing a journalist to reveal their source.
From there, Wyden goes on to note he’s working to introduce stronger protections for journalists. And with that in mind, he asks the new Attorney General to start repairing some of the damage done by the previous administration.
[T]he Biden Administration has the opportunity to voluntarily leave behind the thuggish and Orwellian abuses of power of the last administration, and stand up as a world leader for press freedoms. […] Simply put, the government should not collect journalists’ communications records unless it’s investigating them for a crime or as part of an investigation into foreign espionage, in which case it should get a warrant.
That’s far more restrictive than the DOJ’s current standards, which seem pretty low for something with the word “justice” in it that operates in a nation that has held itself out to be the standard-bearer for personal freedoms. Hopefully, AG Garland will decide it’s time for the DOJ to respect the rights all government employees swear to uphold.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, 4th amendment, doj, intimidation, journalists, ron wyden
Comments on “Senator Wyden Tells The DOJ It Needs To Stop Going After Journalists During Leak Investigations”
"Simply put, the government should not collect journalists’ communications records unless it’s investigating them for a crime or as part of an investigation into foreign espionage, in which case it should get a warrant." – Senator Ron Wyden
Holly Sensibility Batman! A congress critter that actually has some form of reasoning. How can we clone them?
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When Senator Wyden says something pertaining to government surveillance, its a good idea to pay attention.
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The only thing I don’t like about having Wyden as my senator, is that we won’t be able to keep him forever.
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Find a rich motherfucker willing toss away all scientific morals and ethics, then find enough scientists willing to do the same for the sake of making shitloads of money. Although I’m pretty sure that’s how we end up with the Umbrella Corporation… ????
If only he had spoken up during the Obama administration as well.
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Techdirt has a search box in its upper right corner. Search for "Wyden". The kind of headlines you get don’t change a lot during administrations. Here is one from the Obama administration.
the United Police States of America are at it again! unfortunately, i doubt if the DoJ or any other security service will take much notice of Wyden, they’re far too rapped up in doing whatever the hell they want, especially if it means acting like Nazis and screwing citizens, whatever their profession!
It's Not Hard To Stop Leaks
In the UK last year there was a leak issue and the government solved it in an interesting manner. They sent a memo telling people to stop leaking things but, each version of the memo was slightly different. When that memo was invariably leaked to the press, they knew exactly who’d done it and that individual was forced to resign. This is how you deal with a leak investigation without attacking the free press.