first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2021-06-21 15:31:17.674548+00:00,2024-02-29 19:30:19.993104+00:00,Justice Department attempted to seize email records of 4 New York Times reporters,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/justice-department-attempts-to-seize-email-records-of-four-new-york-times-reporters/,2024-02-29 19:30:19.889272+00:00,,LegalOrder object (119),,Subpoena/Legal Order,,,,"Matt Apuzzo (The New York Times), Adam Goldman (The New York Times), Eric Lichtblau (The New York Times), Michael S. Schmidt (The New York Times)",,2021-01-05,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"
The Department of Justice under then-President Donald Trump obtained a court order on Jan. 5, 2021, demanding that the tech company Google secretly turn over the email logs of four New York Times reporters as part of an ongoing leak investigation. The effort, though ultimately dropped, was continued under President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Times reported that two days after it was revealed that the DOJ had obtained the phone records of four reporters — Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt — a gag order was lifted that had prevented a Times attorney from disclosing an ongoing battle over the same reporters’ email records.
According to the lawyer, David McCraw, the Justice Department obtained a 2703(d) court order from a magistrate judge requiring Google, which operates the Times’ email system, to turn over the requested records without informing the newspaper of the disclosure. Google reportedly resisted, saying that to do so would violate the tech company’s contract with the Times.
Google didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment. A spokesperson for the tech company told the Times it doesn’t comment on specific cases, but is “firmly committed to protecting our customers’ data and we have a long history of pushing to notify our customers about any legal requests.”
On March 3, the judge permitted Google to inform McCraw of the effort but required him to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring him from telling Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet or other newsroom leaders: a move which McCraw told the Times was unprecedented. A federal court lifted the order on June 4.
Baquet condemned both presidential administrations in a statement to the newspaper.
“Clearly, Google did the right thing, but it should never have come to this,” Baquet said. “The Justice Department relentlessly pursued the identity of sources for coverage that was clearly in the public interest in the final 15 days of the Trump administration. And the Biden administration continued to pursue it. As I said before, it profoundly undermines press freedom.”
Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley told the Times that, under the Biden administration, the department “voluntarily moved to withdraw the order before any records were produced.” The Biden administration issued a statement that no one at the White House was aware of the gag order until it was lifted.
The revelation about the Times reporters’ email records was the latest in a series of recent disclosures about the Trump administration’s efforts to use the seizure of journalists’ communications to identify leakers or critics of the administration.
CNN reported that DOJ regulations for issuing media subpoenas were changed under the Obama administration in 2015 to require that the attorney general authorize any such legal orders related to journalists’ communications or work products. While the regulations mandated that the journalist and outlet be notified of the seizures, the policy set no clear timetable for notification.
On May 21, 2021, Biden condemned such seizures as “simply, simply wrong,” The Associated Press reported. In keeping with Biden’s sentiments, the DOJ said on June 5 that it would no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations, according to the AP.
“This announcement is a potential sea change for press freedom rights in the United States,” Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. “While we’re encouraged to see this announcement ending this invasive and disturbing tactic, the devil is—of course—in the details. The Justice Department must now write this categorical bar of journalist surveillance into its official ‘media guidelines,’ and Congress should also immediately enshrine the rules into law to ensure no administration can abuse its power again.”
FPF is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker and manages its day-to-day operations.
When reached for comment concerning the newspaper’s push for an explanation from the Justice Department, Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha confirmed to the Tracker that publisher A.G. Sulzberger would be meeting with the attorney general and shared a statement from him ahead of that meeting.
“We’re pleased that Attorney General [Merrick] Garland has agreed to this meeting. We hope to use the meeting to learn more about how this seizure of records happened and to seek a commitment that the Department of Justice will no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations,” Sulzberger said.
Garland met with executives from the Times, The Washington Post and CNN on June 14, and affirmed the planned policy changes. While Garland’s comments during the meeting were off the record, the Times reported that Sulzberger was encouraged by Garland’s statements but said he would continue to push the department until the outlets’ concerns were fully addressed.
The New York Times office in the Manhattan borough of New York City in 2020
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,journalist communications or work product,['DROPPED'],Google,tech company,Journalist,2703(d) court order,Federal,None,False,[],,Department of Justice,,, 2021-07-14 21:37:03.202911+00:00,2024-02-29 19:30:45.616886+00:00,Justice Department attempted to seize email records of 3 Washington Post reporters,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/justice-department-attempted-to-seize-email-records-of-3-washington-post-reporters/,2024-02-29 19:30:45.534121+00:00,,LegalOrder object (117),,Subpoena/Legal Order,,,,"Adam Entous (The Washington Post), Greg Miller (The Washington Post), Ellen Nakashima (The Washington Post)",,2020-12-22,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"The Department of Justice under then-President Donald Trump attempted to acquire email records of three Washington Post reporters as part of a leak investigation on Dec. 22, 2020.
The day before William Barr stepped down as attorney general, he filed an application for a court order to compel Proofpoint, a cybersecurity firm, to turn over records belonging to Post reporters Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous, who now works at The New Yorker. The request was part of an attempt to identify who had informed the journalists about conversations between Trump campaign officials and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to the Post.
According to the redacted application, classified information was made available to Congress in April 2017 and was published by the Post in the subsequent months.
The DOJ also seized the same journalists' phone records in 2020; the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented that court order here. The Biden Justice Department’s disclosure of the seizures led to the unsealing of court documents about the leak investigation on July 9, 2021.
According to the court docket, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui granted the department’s request for a 2703(d) court order to compel the release of the records. However, the Post reported that while the DOJ did obtain the reporters’ phone logs, it did not succeed in obtaining their email records.
The revelation about the email records was the latest in a series of recent disclosures about the Trump administration’s efforts to use the seizure of journalists’ communications to identify leakers or critics of the administration.
On May 21, President Joe Biden condemned such seizures as “simply, simply wrong” following revelations that CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr’s personal phone and email records were obtained during the Trump administration, The Associated Press reported. In keeping with Biden’s sentiments, the DOJ announced on June 5 that it will no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations, according to the AP. The Post reported that Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to send a memo formally notifying all federal prosecutors of the ban in mid-July.
The Department of Justice, The Washington Post and the named reporters didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. As it is unclear if the cybersecurity firm Proofpoint ignored or objected to the request for records before the DOJ closed its investigation, the Tracker is marking the status of the subpoena as dropped.
The U.S. Department of Justice on May 3, 2021, notified Washington Post reporters Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller, and former Post reporter Adam Entous, that it had obtained their phone records from 2017 over reporting on the Trump administration's communications with Russia during the 2016 election, the Post reported.
The Justice Department wrote in three separate letters that they obtained the reporters' phone records from April 15, 2017 to July 31, 2017, the Post reported. The article said the letters don’t state the purpose of this seizure, but noted that “toward the end of the time period mentioned in the letters, those reporters wrote a story about classified U.S. intelligence intercepts indicating that in 2016, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) had discussed the Trump campaign with Sergey Kislyak, who was Russia’s ambassador to the United States.”
The letters received at the Post were signed by Channing D. Phillips, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and John C. Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division, the paper reported. Records from five phones had been seized. These were Nakashima’s work, cell and home phones; Miller’s work and cellphones; and Entous’ cellphone.
"We are deeply troubled by this use of government power to seek access to the communications of journalists,” the Post’s acting executive editor, Cameron Barr, said in the article. “The Department of Justice should immediately make clear its reasons for this intrusion into the activities of reporters doing their jobs, an activity protected under the First Amendment."
A Justice Department spokesman told the Post that the decision to obtain those records came in 2020, during the Trump Administration. A specific date or the name of the telecom company in possession of the records was not disclosed. The letters, according to the article, also indicated a court order to take “non content communication records” for the reporters’ work email accounts, but the Justice Department didn’t do so. The Post said the timeline of the leak investigation was unclear, but the Justice Department is typically required to tell the news organization that it took action to obtain media records, which explains the notification of the reporters.
The Department of Justice, The Washington Post and the reporters didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The U.S. Department of Justice informed CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr on May 13, 2021, that under the Trump administration, the agency secretly obtained her work and personal phone and email records, CNN reported.
According to CNN, prosecutors obtained Starr’s records from June 1 to July 31, 2017, including records from her phone extension at the Pentagon, the CNN Pentagon booth phone, Starr’s home and work numbers, and both her work and personal email accounts.
The phone information obtained included “toll records” for each number, which detail the numbers of calls to and from the line and the duration of each. Similarly, prosecutors obtained “non-content information” for Starr’s email addresses: the recipient, sender and timestamp of each email but not the contents, the outlet reported. CNN said the records were obtained without notifying Starr or her employer.
It is unclear what investigators were looking for, CNN reported, as well as when the investigation was opened and whether it was by Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Attorney General William Barr, both appointed by former President Trump. Neither Starr nor CNN responded to requests for comment.
Anthony Coley, DOJ’s director of public affairs and a senior advisor to Attorney General Merrick Garland, said in a statement to CNN that the decision to subpoena Starr’s communications was approved by the Trump administration in 2020.
“Department leadership will soon meet with reporters to hear their concerns about recent notices and further convey Attorney General Garland’s staunch support of and commitment to a free and independent press,” Coley said.
“CNN strongly condemns the secret collection of any aspect of a journalist’s correspondence, which is clearly protected by the First Amendment,” said CNN President Jeff Zucker in a statement to the outlet. “We are asking for an immediate meeting with the Justice Department for an explanation.”
The revelation about Starr’s records was one in a series of recent disclosures about the Trump administration’s efforts to use the seizure of journalists’ communications to identify leakers or critics of the administration.
CNN reported that DOJ regulations for issuing media subpoenas were changed under the Obama administration in 2015, to require that the attorney general authorize any such legal orders related to journalists’ communications or work product. While the regulations mandated that the journalist and outlet be notified of the seizures, the policy set no clear timetable for notification.
On May 21, 2021, President Joe Biden condemned such seizures as “simply, simply wrong” following the revelations about Starr’s records, The Associated Press reported. In keeping with Biden’s sentiments, the DOJ announced on June 5 that it will no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations, according to the AP.
“This announcement is a potential sea change for press freedom rights in the United States,” Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. “While we’re encouraged to see this announcement ending this invasive and disturbing tactic, the devil is — of course — in the details. The Justice Department must now write this categorical bar of journalist surveillance into its official ‘media guidelines,’ and Congress should also immediately enshrine the rules into law to ensure no administration can abuse its power again.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland met with executives from CNN as well as those from The New York Times and The Washington Post on June 14, and affirmed the planned policy changes.
The U.S. Department of Justice informed The New York Times on June 2, 2021, that the agency secretly obtained phone records of four of the newspaper’s reporters during the Trump administration, the Times reported.
The Justice Department, now under President Joe Biden, sent a letter to the Times saying that in 2020 it had obtained phone logs spanning nearly four months of 2017 for multiple Times reporters — Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau and Michael S. Schmidt — as part of a leak investigation. While the letter didn’t specify the subject of the investigation, according to the Times the four reporters were covering then-FBI Director James Comey’s handling of investigations into the 2016 election, and had published classified information.
Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet told the newspaper in a statement: “President Biden has said this sort of interference with a free press will not be tolerated in his administration. We expect the Department of Justice to explain why this action was taken and what steps are being taken to make certain it does not happen again in the future.”
Goldman’s phone records also were seized in 2013 while he was reporting for The Associated Press, which helped spur reforms to the department’s policies on obtaining journalists’ records. Goldman didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
I don’t care who is president - Republican or Democrat - I will always try to inform the public.
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) June 3, 2021
“I don’t care who is president—Republican or Democrat—I will always try to inform the public,” Goldman wrote in a June 2 tweet.
CNN reported that DOJ regulations for issuing media subpoenas were changed under the Obama administration in 2015 to require that the attorney general authorize any such legal orders related to journalists’ communications or work products. While the regulations mandated that the journalist and outlet be notified of the seizures, the policy set no clear timetable for notification.
The revelation about the Times reporters’ phone records was the latest in a series of recent disclosures about the Trump administration’s efforts to use the seizure of journalists’ communications to identify leakers or critics of the administration. On June 4, a gag order was lifted, allowing Times attorney Dave McCraw to reveal that the DOJ also had attempted to obtain the four reporters’ email records in an effort that began in January 2021 and continued under the Biden administration.
On May 21, President Joe Biden condemned such seizures as “simply, simply wrong,” the AP reported. In keeping with Biden’s sentiments, the DOJ announced on June 5 that it would no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations, according to the AP.
“This announcement is a potential sea change for press freedom rights in the United States,” Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. “While we’re encouraged to see this announcement ending this invasive and disturbing tactic, the devil is—of course—in the details. The Justice Department must now write this categorical bar of journalist surveillance into its official ‘media guidelines,’ and Congress should also immediately enshrine the rules into law to ensure no administration can abuse its power again.”
FPF is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker and manages its day-to-day operations.
When reached for comment concerning the newspaper’s push for an explanation from the Justice Department, Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha confirmed to the Tracker that publisher A.G. Sulzberger would be meeting with the attorney general and shared a statement from him ahead of that meeting.
“We’re pleased that Attorney General [Merrick] Garland has agreed to this meeting. We hope to use the meeting to learn more about how this seizure of records happened and to seek a commitment that the Department of Justice will no longer seize journalists’ records during leak investigations,” Sulzberger said.
Garland met with executives from The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN on June 14, and affirmed the planned policy changes. While Garland’s comments during the meeting were off the record, The Times reported that Sulzberger was encouraged by Garland’s statements but said he would continue to push the department until the outlets’ concerns are fully addressed.