The Justice Department has withdrawn subpoenas that sought to force reporters to appear before a federal grand jury in Virginia as part of the Trump administration’s intensifying effort to ferret out leakers about its internal decision-making.
The subpoenas had sought to compel testimony from reporters at The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post this month, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the details of the investigations. But the Justice Department backed down after the news organizations fought them in sealed filings.
The grand jury subpoenas represented a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to force journalists to cooperate with criminal investigations into disclosures of national security information.
It was not immediately clear whether the Justice Department would try again to subpoena the reporters. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, who President Trump has nominated to permanently fill the job, defended the practice last month.
“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,” Mr. Blanche said.
While leak investigations into disclosures of classified information are common, subpoenas aimed at journalists are not. Advocates of press freedom say they intrude on the First Amendment, and chill critical news gathering.
The Justice Department had sought information from three reporters at The Journal about an article detailing how top officials warned Mr. Trump of the risks of a major military campaign against Iran, according to the people familiar with the matter. It also sought information from a reporter at The Post, Ellen Nakashima, about reporting related to U.S. military action in Venezuela.
A spokeswoman for The Washington Post, Olivia Petersen, called the subpoena unwarranted and “a clear violation of constitutionally guaranteed press freedom.” She added that it was “another sign of the government seeking to compel journalists to become instruments of its investigations.”
A spokeswoman for Dow Jones, which publishes The Journal, declined to comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Post reported earlier that the subpoenas had been withdrawn.
Mr. Trump has vowed to go after the news media and compel journalists to reveal sources or go to jail.
“We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘national security; give it up or go to jail,’” he said in April after reporting of Iran’s strike against an American fighter jet.
Leak investigations have historically focused on determining which government officials disclosed classified material, and whether they can be charged with a crime. But such cases can become particularly fraught when federal law enforcement officials try to solve a case or build a prosecution by investigating reporters’ records to identify their sources.
Last year, the Trump administration signaled it would more aggressively pursue such cases, when the Justice Department canceled a Biden-era policy meant to put strict limits on such investigations. In January, federal agents searched the home of a Washington Post journalist as part of an investigation into a government contractor’s handling of classified records — a search that has led to a prolonged legal fight over access to her electronic data.
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