Justice Department officials will meet with reporters on Monday to discuss possible changes to the way the government deals with reporters who are leaked classified information.
In August, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters that the Justice Department would review its policy on when to subpoena journalists in these cases, as part of an attempt to crackdown on these leaks.
“We’re responding to issues that have been raised by career prosecutors and agents” on how to investigate leaks of classified information that are prosecutable, Rosenstein said at the time. He said later the department’s goal was not to jail journalists.
As part of the process, officials will meet with the News Media Dialogue Group on Monday, Oct. 2, as coordinated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Jenn Topper, the communications director of the nonprofit, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday the news media representatives are not officially decided.
The Justice Department last revisited the rules it uses when deciding whether to subpoena reporters who receive classified information in 2015, which created the News Media Dialogue Group.
According to a 2015 press release by RCFP, members of the News Media Group in 2015 were “news industry leaders” Susan Page, Robin Sproul, Ken Strickland, Jerry Seib, Bill Keller, Jane Mayer, Karen Kaiser, Steve Coll, Leonard Downie and Kurt Wimmer, and RCFP’s executive director, Bruce Brown.
RCFP will convene news organizations at DOJ Monday to discuss preserving & strengthening guidelines to protect journalists from subpoenas. https://t.co/WxpxD266FU
— Reporters Committee (@rcfp) September 27, 2017
