{"id":8121,"date":"2026-07-24T23:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8121"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:07:13","slug":"to-track-down-government-leakers-trump-supports-pursuing-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8121","title":{"rendered":"To track down government leakers, Trump supports pursuing journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hours before addressing the White House press corps, the president endorsed using subpoenas against reporters in national security leak investigations.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Michigan\u2019s Whitmer endorses in key Senate race<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re after leakers. We\u2019re after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous in many cases. And the way you find them is through the journalists,\u201d President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. (Eric Lee\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

President Donald Trump took an aggressive stance toward Justice Department investigations of journalists Friday, saying that the way to pursue \u201ctreasonous\u201d leaks was to seek information from the journalists who received the leaked material.<\/p>\n

The comments \u2014 which came hours ahead of a rerun of the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner, where the president was to address the reporters who cover him at a gala that honors the freedom of the press \u2014 amounted to a presidential endorsement of his administration\u2019s legal battles against journalists, which have included an FBI raid against a Washington Post reporter<\/a> in January and subpoenas against New York Times journalists<\/a> this month.<\/p>\n

Judges have taken Justice Department officials to task for their handling of both cases, including on Thursday, when the subpoenas against the Times reporters were withdrawn<\/a> following withering questioning from a federal judge in New York. But Trump suggested that the legal peril was not over for those reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not after journalists. We\u2019re after leakers. We\u2019re after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous in many cases. And the way you find them is through the journalists,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. \u201cWhen the journalists probably know they shouldn\u2019t write, they shouldn\u2019t be giving information out like that particular information or others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president mentioned Politico\u2019s 2022 publication of a leaked draft of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Roe v. Wade <\/i>abortion decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat person should be found, and the way you find them is to tell the journalist \u2014 if it\u2019s something having to do with national security \u2014 you tell the journalist, \u2018Who is it?\u2019 And we have a long way to go with that case,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

His comments came a day after U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian grilled federal prosecutors about the subpoenas directing the New York Times journalists to answer questions from a grand jury and demanding records of telephone calls made from their phones and, in some cases, the phones of relatives. The Justice Department subpoenaed the reporters this month after they reported on security concerns around Trump\u2019s flying on a repurposed luxury Boeing 747 that was given to him by the Qatari government.<\/p>\n

Trump flew to a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on the jet, but he abandoned plans to use it on the return trip after concerns about a potential attack on the plane from neighboring Iran.<\/p>\n

The new presidential plane lacks at least some of the sophisticated antimissile technology of the old one.<\/p>\n

Trump was angered by the reporting on the subject, and FBI head Kash Patel spent a full day at the White House coordinating the leak investigation.<\/p>\n

Subramanian criticized prosecutors, noting legal precedents that say subpoenas of reporters can come only at the end of an extensive legal effort, not at the outset. He offered the Justice Department the choice either to withdraw the legal demands or have him quash them, but he also suggested that subpoenas could still be issued if ordinary procedure was followed.<\/p>

Read more Trump returns to correspondents\u2019 dinner after shooting disrupted April event<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump said of going after journalists that \u201cin many cases, that\u2019s the only way you\u2019re going to find out who a leaker is.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he said that he viewed pursuing journalists as worthwhile when it concerns \u201ca national security leak or a leak of great importance.\u201d When someone inside the White House leaks to reporters, he said, \u201cthat\u2019s a national security concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump noted that the Obama administration had also pursued reporters as a part of leak investigations and falsely said that no one had complained.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration did pursue aggressive leak investigations, and in some cases secretly obtained the phone records of journalists<\/a>, including Washington Post reporters. The administration came under heavy criticism from journalism groups, members of Congress and press freedom advocates, leading then-Attorney General Eric Holder to issue new policies limiting subpoenas of reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile other administrations have pursued subpoenas against the press, no administration has used the full weight of its powers \u2014 rhetorical, regulatory, legal \u2014 to attack reporters in the way this one has done,\u201d said Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. \u201cThe record is not even close.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department has typically used a light touch when it comes to involving reporters in legal investigations of information in the stories they publish, because of wide-ranging First Amendment protections that have been reaffirmed by court precedent. In addition to the policies put in place under Holder, a Biden-era policy protected journalists from subpoenas during leak investigations. The Justice Department rescinded it last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even when judges ultimately rule in favor of reporters\u2019 ability to keep their notes and records private, legal investigations can still have a chilling effect on journalists\u2019 capacity to do their jobs, press freedom advocates say.<\/p>\n

Judges have largely condemned the Justice Department\u2019s handling of the high-profile January FBI raid of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson\u2019s house and devices, issuing a string of rulings in her favor.<\/p>\n

The search was part of an investigation of a federal contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials. In March, a federal magistrate judge blocked the government<\/a> from searching Natanson\u2019s devices.<\/p>\n

But the knowledge that reporters\u2019 devices could be impounded, their phone records could be searched or they could be compelled to testify about their sources serves as a signal to government officials not to speak to them, advocates say.<\/p>\n

The aggressive investigations also create legal peril for reporters when they publish articles that displease the White House.<\/p>

Read more What happened under Trump this week<\/a><\/p>\n

Perry Stein contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hours before addressing the White House press corps, the president endorsed using subpoenas against reporters in national security leak investigations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTo track down government leakers, Trump supports pursuing journalists - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8121\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To track down government leakers, Trump supports pursuing journalists - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hours before addressing the White House press corps, the president endorsed using subpoenas against reporters in national security leak investigations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8121\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-24T23:07:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5526dee7be4f610b75f1652e6f602431-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"To track down government leakers, Trump supports pursuing journalists\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-24T23:07:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121\"},\"wordCount\":1037,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1dee6ac78ba42a8c2bf34dedb65b0deb-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121\",\"name\":\"To track down government leakers, Trump supports pursuing journalists - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1dee6ac78ba42a8c2bf34dedb65b0deb-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-24T23:07:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8121#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1dee6ac78ba42a8c2bf34dedb65b0deb-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1dee6ac78ba42a8c2bf34dedb65b0deb-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 24: U.S. President Donald Trump listens during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. 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