Washington Post Publisher Says Biden DOJ 'Intensified' Trump-Era Attacks on
Press Freedom
"The egregious acts by the outgoing Trump Justice Department, and the
apparent doubling down on them during the Biden administration, should alarm
all Americans, regardless of political persuasion."
KENNY STANCIL, STAFF WRITER
Common Dreams
June 7, 2021
In an opinion piece, the Washington Post's publisher on Sunday accused
President Joe Biden's Justice Department of exacerbating the Trump
administration's assault on press freedom and called for a "full accounting"
of the Biden DOJ's recent practices in order to prevent such a "brazen
infringement of the First Amendment rights of all Americans" from happening
again.
"Trump's actions, and the expansion upon them during the Biden
administration, pose a grave threat to our ability as a nation to keep
powerful officials in check."
-Fred Ryan, Washington Post
Recent reporting revealed that during the last days of then-President Donald
Trump's term, DOJ officials authorized subpoenas to secretly obtain the
phone and email records of reporters at the Post, CNN, and the New York
Times. In the wake of the revelations, Biden last month condemned the
unconstitutional actions taken by his predecessor's Justice Department and
vowed that his administration would protect the rights of journalists and,
by extension, those of the public.
"Unfortunately," Post publisher Fred Ryan wrote Sunday, "new revelations
suggest that the Biden Justice Department not only allowed these disturbing
intrusions to continue-it intensified the government's attack on First
Amendment rights before finally backing down in the face of reporting about
its conduct."
According to Ryan:
After Biden took office, the department continued to pursue subpoenas for
reporters' email logs issued to Google, which operates the New York Times'
email systems, and it obtained a gag order compelling a Times attorney to
keep silent about the fact that federal authorities were seeking to seize
his colleagues' records.
Later, when the Justice Department broadened the number of those permitted
to know about the effort, it barred Times executives from discussing the
legal battle with the Times newsroom, including the paper's top editor.
Ryan argued that "this escalation, on Biden's watch, represents an
unprecedented assault on American news organizations and their efforts to
inform the public about government wrongdoing."
Following last month's bombshell report about the Trump DOJ's seizure of
three Post journalists' communications records, the newspaper "immediately
requested an explanation and answers to several questions from the Justice
Department as well as a meeting with the attorney general," Ryan wrote
Sunday.
"To date, no answers have been provided and the meeting has yet to take
place," he added. "This delay is troubling."
Although Biden last month called apprehending journalists' communication
records in an attempt to identify the sources of leaks "simply, simply
wrong" and insisted that he "will not let that happen," his Justice
Department tried to justify the Trump administration's intervention at the
Post as part of "a criminal investigation into unauthorized disclosure of
classified information."
As Ryan noted Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has been unable
to explain the discrepancy between Biden's denunciation of the Trump
administration's actions plus his assurances that he would not permit such
practices to continue, on the one hand, and his own Justice Department's
behavior, on the other. She did, however, issue a statement "disavowing
White House knowledge of the actions that appear to have continued for
several months during Biden's presidency."
While First Amendment advocates have long argued that cracking down on
journalists and their sources dissuades people from sharing information that
can help expose the truth, hold the powerful accountable, and improve the
common good, the Obama-Biden administration and the Trump White House both
went to great lengths to prevent leaks and punish government officials for
divulging information to reporters. Before the Trump-era "war on
whistleblowers," the Obama DOJ prosecuted nine leak cases, more than all
previous administrations combined.
In his opinion piece, Ryan wrote that:
Throughout U.S. history, there have been inevitable differences between news
organizations seeking to shed light on government activity and government
officials seeking to preserve secrecy. As a society, we have become
accustomed to these tensions. For the most part, they have been constructive
and good for the health of our democracy. However, the egregious acts by the
outgoing Trump Justice Department, and the apparent doubling down on them
during the Biden administration, should alarm all Americans, regardless of
political persuasion.
The First Amendment is not a special privilege of the press but, rather, a
fundamental right protecting all Americans. It empowers citizens to hold
their elected officials to account by ensuring that wrongdoing, even at the
highest levels, will be brought to light. Much of this reporting would be
impossible without courageous government employees who, after learning about
serious misdeeds, improper programs conducted under the cloak of secrecy, or
other actions contrary to America's fundamental principles and national
interests, take the risk of speaking to reporters in confidence to bring
such conduct to the attention of their fellow citizens.
"Trump's actions, and the expansion upon them during the Biden
administration, pose a grave threat to our ability as a nation to keep
powerful officials in check," Ryan stressed.
While he argued that the Biden DOJ's Saturday statement that it "will not
seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source
information from the media doing their jobs" is a step in the right
direction, Ryan added that "it does not guarantee that the Biden
administration-or future administrations-will not resume these intrusive
tactics."
"There must be clear and enduring safeguards to ensure that this brazen
infringement of the First Amendment rights of all Americans is never
repeated," Ryan continued.
Moreover, "The inconsistency between presidential words and Justice
Department deeds dictates the need for full accountability and transparency
regarding the actions taken by the exiting Trump Justice Department and
those of the incoming Biden administration," he wrote. "A full accounting
should be produced and released for the American public to see."