President Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration’s seizure of records from reporters and pledged to “not let that happen” with his Justice Department.
He was asked about the burgeoning controversy on Friday, one day after the Justice Department announced that agency leadership will meet with journalists, who have expressed outrage over a possible infringement of their First Amendment rights.
“It’s wrong. It’s simply, simply wrong,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, adding he “will not let that happen” when asked about letting his own Justice Department do the same thing.
BIDEN DOJ TO MEET WITH REPORTERS ABOUT TRUMP-ERA SECRET RECORDS SEIZURES
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1395871101331386373
In recent weeks, CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and three reporters from the Washington Post were notified of court-approved seizures of their phone and email records during a monthslong period in 2017. The Justice Department said the seizures took place in 2020, and the letters sent to each of the reporters said prosecutors obtained “non-content” information, meaning that senders, recipients, and time stamps would be disclosed but not the content of their conversations.
“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,” Anthony Coley, the DOJ director of public affairs and a senior adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki vowed the White House would return to “the Holder model” of records seizures created under former President Barack Obama and then-Attorney General Eric Holder.
“They certainly intend to use the Holder model as their model,” she said at a White House press briefing.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
After Holder faced backlash when the seizure of records from the Associated Press and then-Fox News reporter James Rosen amid a crackdown on leaks, he changed DOJ policy to restrict subpoenas of reporters.
Barr, who was attorney general throughout 2020 until just before Christmas, reportedly told a Washington Post journalist that he, too, “followed” the “Holder model.”
