The Justice Department on Friday rescinded a Biden-era policy that prevented officials from searching reporters’ phone records when trying to identify government personnel who have leaked sensitive information to news organizations.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an internal memo that the media should not be afforded such protections, noting leaks of government information during the Trump administration.
“This conduct is illegal and wrong and it must stop,” she wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.
The attorney general said she supports an independent and free press and stated that the Justice Department would search reporters’ communication records only when other investigative methods had been exhausted. Bondi said she must approve all attempts to question or arrest journalists.
Still, she criticized the media’s coverage of the president and added that the administration’s support of the free press exists despite “the lack of independence of certain members of the legacy news media.”
“This Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people,” she wrote.
In a statement, Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray said: “The First Amendment is central to our democracy and an enshrined constitutional right for all Americans. Any government effort to subpoena reporters and their records threatens those constitutional rights for the independent press.”
Bondi’s memo marks a return to a Justice Department policy that drew widespread criticism from news organizations and First Amendment advocates during Trump’s first administration and the tenure of his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
Under Trump, the Justice Department sought court orders to obtain phone and email records of reporters at The Post, CNN and The New York Times, trying to identify who within the government’s ranks was leaking information.
Those investigations carried over into the Biden administration until — in 2022 — Attorney General Merrick Garland barred federal prosecutors from using those tactics.
Bruce D. Brown, president of the media advocacy group Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the decision to rescind the Garland-era rules represented a stark about-face.
“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,” Brown said in a statement. “Strong protections for journalists serve the American public by safeguarding the free flow of information.”
Bondi’s memo is part of an aggressive campaign in Trump’s second administration against unauthorized leaking.
Earlier this week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and her staff said on social media that she had referred “two intelligence community leakers” to the Justice Department for potential prosecutions, with a third referral on the way. One of the leaks included information published in a recent Post article on the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, Alexa Henning, an aide to Gabbard, said in a post on X.
And last week, three top aides to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were removed amid an apparent inquiry into the leak of sensitive information, defense officials said.
Hegseth, meanwhile, has been under fire for his handling of sensitive government information. He shared information about an upcoming U.S. strike on Yemen’s Houthis in two Signal chat groups. One was set up by Trump national security adviser Michael Waltz, who inadvertently included a journalist in the group. Another, which Hegseth established, included members of his family and his personal lawyer, The Post reported this week.
In her memo, Bondi took aim at the Biden administration, accusing the former president of muzzling his political opponents without providing evidence he had done so.
Bondi cited gag orders that judges imposed on Trump when he was a criminal defendant to keep him from disparaging witnesses and courthouse staff. The orders did not prevent Trump from speaking about President Joe Biden — whom he was running against for president at the time — or the judges themselves.