Trump Expands Press Freedom To Include FBI Home Visits

President Donald Trump unveiled an expansion of press freedom Friday that allows federal agents to visit journalists’ homes, inspect their communications and help reluctant reporters remember which confidential sources the Constitution permits them to betray. Trump endorsed pursuing journalists in leak investigations one day after the Justice Department withdrew subpoenas aimed at three New York Times reporters who covered security concerns surrounding a luxury jet offered by Qatar for presidential use. The subpoenas also sought records involving two reporters’ spouses and one reporter’s mother, extending First Amendment protections to the convenient new federal family plan.

“We’re not going after journalists, believe me,” Trump said. “We’re going after their phone records, their sources, their husbands, their wives and sometimes their mothers, which is completely different and probably the greatest press freedom anybody has ever seen.” U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian had criticized the government’s legal work, citing the antiquated expectation that prosecutors understand the law, identify the correct people and justify rummaging through private communications. Justice Department officials may issue revised subpoenas after completing the burdensome administrative step of making them legal.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche are expected to preserve the administration’s distinction between intimidating the press and merely demonstrating, in exhaustive personal detail, what happens when the press publishes information the government dislikes. White House officials said reporters remain entirely free to print government secrets, provided they accept follow-up assistance from prosecutors, investigators and any agents available to interrupt dinner. Under the policy, the government may keep its sources, methods, deliberations and donors confidential, while journalists must explain who called them, when they called, what their spouse knew and whether their mother has retained counsel. The arrangement has been designated mutual transparency because only the public is required to be transparent, establishing federal surveillance of reporters as the nation’s highest form of press freedom.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.