DHS memo reveals order to stop intelligence-gathering on journalists

Published August 1, 2020 3:52pm ET



Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf ordered his agency’s intelligence-gathering office to stop collecting information on journalists following a report that it compiled on two reporters covering the riots in Portland, Oregon, according to a document obtained by the Washington Examiner.

“To follow up on my verbal order from July 30, 2020, effective immediately I am ordering [DHS Intelligence & Analysis Directorate] to discontinue collecting information involving U.S. members of the press,” Wolf wrote in the memo dated Friday. “The Department will continue to identify leaked information to assess the potential damage to national security or Departmental operations but will no longer identify U.S. members of the media in our intelligence products.”

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