June 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice said Saturday that it will reverse regulations that allow it to obtain journalists' information while investigating leaks.
"Going forward, consistent with the President's direction, this Department of Justice - in a change to its longstanding practice -- will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs," Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement as reported by Politico.
"The Department strongly values a free press, protecting First Amendment values, and is committed to taking all appropriate steps to ensure the independence of journalists."
Earlier this week a New York Times attorney revealed that in March the Justice Department fought to obtain information about the email records of four Times reporters as it investigated a leak.
Related
During that legal fight, a magistrate judge issued a gag order that prevented Google, which provides email services to the newspaper, from disclosing the effort.
The judge later allowed a Times attorney and some executives to be notified, but forbade them from discussing it -- even with the editors and reporters involved.
According to Coley, the order sought to identify who reporters were communicating with and when, but not the content of the messages.
When reports surfaced last month that investigators had sought journalists' telephone and email records, President Joe Biden said such tactics were "simply, simply wrong" and would not continue under his administration.
On Saturday, his press secretary, Jen Psaki, said no one at the White House was aware of the gag order until Friday.
"As appropriate given the independence of the Justice Department in specific criminal cases, no one at the White House was aware of the gag order until Friday night," Psaki wrote. "While the White House does not intervene in criminal investigations, the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the president's policy direction to the department, and the Department of Justice has reconfirmed it will not be used moving forward."
The Justice Department's announcement Saturday reverses DOJ regulations dating back to former President Barack Obama's administration, which permitted going after certain data in leak investigations provided there was high-level approval for the tactic.
According to the Times, the government's investigation of the newspaper was apparently focused on an April 2017 article about former FBI Director James Comey's 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.
