The Trump administration has excoriated leaks to news media organizations.
The Justice Department issued subpoenas to the Wall Street Journal in March seeking information related to the paper’s coverage of the conflict in Iran, demonstrating the Trump administration’s willingness to employ aggressive tactics to crack down on leaks to media outlets.
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A spokesperson for the Wall Street Journal confirmed receipt of the subpoenas. The paper reported in a story published Monday that the legal requests were dated March 4 and related to a Feb. 23 article — published before the war in Iran started — describing internal Pentagon concerns about an extended military action in Iran.
Acting attorney general Todd Blanche defended the subpoenas in a social media post Tuesday morning, saying that “prosecuting leakers who share our nation’s secrets with reporters, in turn risking our national security and the lives of our soldiers, is a priority for this administration.”
“Any witness, whether a reporter or otherwise, who has information about these criminals should not be surprised if they receive a subpoena about the illegal leaking of classified material,” Blanche said in the statement.
The subpoenas marked the latest in a growing list of efforts by President Donald Trump and officials within his administration to take aim at journalists and broader news media coverage. The administration earlier this year raided the home of a Washington Post reporter, while Trump has suggested jailing journalists who refuse to disclose their sources.
Dow Jones — the company that owns the Wall Street Journal — said that the subpoenas the news organization received reflected an attempt to stifle free speech.
“The government’s subpoenas to The Wall Street Journal and our reporters represent an attack on constitutionally protected newsgathering,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “We will vigorously oppose this effort to stifle and intimidate essential reporting.”
Historically, it has been rare, though not unprecedented, for federal law enforcement officials to subpoena journalists about their reporting. Instead, it is far more common for law enforcement officials to go after the government employees believed to be improperly disclosing material, rather than the journalists who published sensitive information.
While federal regulations are designed to make it difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to obtain the identities of their sources or information, the Trump administration is deploying increasingly forceful methods and scathing language toward journalists who report on sensitive information.
In the first months of the Trump administration, then-attorney general Pam Bondi rescinded a Biden-era policy that prevented officials from searching reporters’ phone records when trying to identify government personnel who leaked sensitive information to news organizations.
The Trump administration’s approach appears to have ramped up this year.
In January, the FBI conducted an extremely rare raid on a Washington Post reporter’s home, seizing the journalist Hannah Natanson’s electronic devices. Natanson, who covered the federal workforce, used the devices to communicate with upward of 1,000 government sources. That search was related to a government contractor in Maryland accused of leaking classified information.
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Judges have rejected the Justice Department’s efforts to have federal officials examine Natanson’s seized devices, concluding instead that the courts should review the materials on the electronics.
Trump, who has long assailed the news media, in April said reporters should be jailed if they didn’t turn over the name of an anonymous source who revealed details about a U.S. airman who went missing in Iran. Numerous news organizations reported on the airman and successful efforts to rescue him, including The Post and the Wall Street Journal.
The Post declined to comment on whether it had also received a subpoena related to its Iran reporting.
Multiple lawsuits have worked through the courts stemming from Trump’s battles with the media during his second term. The New York Times and other outlets are fighting restricted press access in the Pentagon, while Trump sued the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, though a judge dismissed that suit.
FBI Director Kash Patel sued the Atlantic magazine last month over an article alleging that his drinking had alarmed colleagues and affected his job performance. Patel has vehemently denied these claims.
Patel has been furious about the article. Since it was published, the bureau has been conducting polygraphs of agents on his security detail to determine who may have spoken to the media, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous to speak about matters that have not been made public.
Testifying on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Patel denied ordering anyone to be given polygraph examinations, though he said career investigators might have. Patel also said the FBI was not targeting journalists in its investigations.
The Atlantic has defended its coverage of Patel.
“We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
The Trump administration has also applied pressure to other news media organizations. In February, the Federal Communications Commission said it would examine whether the popular ABC talk show, “The View,” violated equal-time rules when it hosted James Talarico, who was then running for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas.
In a filing as a part of this probe that was made public last week, ABC wrote: “The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly.”
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