One of President Donald Trump’s most loyal attack dogs has bragged about going after reporters dubbed “traitors” by his boss.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has defended the Trump administration’s latest offensive against the media after his Justice Department targeted journalists who reported on President Donald Trump’s decision-making on the Iran war.
The DOJ moved after Trump pushed a stack of articles cut out of newspapers, with a sticky on top scrawled with the word “treason,” across the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk at Blanche. Treason carries the death penalty, and has been one of Trump’s favorite go-tos for his enemies.
“To the media asking about DOJ investigating the leaking of classified information: Prosecuting leakers who share our nation’s secrets with reporters, in turn risking our national security and the lives of our soldiers, is a priority for this administration,” Blanche said in a statement.
“Any witness, whether a reporter or otherwise, who has information about these criminals should not be surprised if they receive a subpoena about the illegal leaking of classified material,” he added.
Blanche’s remarks on Tuesday came a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that it received grand jury subpoenas for the records of its reporters.
The request, dated March 4, was related to a Feb. 23 story in which the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper reported that top Pentagon officials had raised concerns with Trump about an extended military campaign against Iran.
The article largely centered around Trump’s top general, Dan Caine, who at the time privately warned the commander-in-chief that war plans under consideration carried risks of casualties, depleted air defenses, and an overworked force. Axios and The Washington Post published similar reports on the same day. Trump waged war on Iran just five days later.
The story was one of several that Trump personally whined about to Blanche, according to the Journal. In one meeting, Trump passed the stack of news articles to the acting attorney general with a sticky note on top that said “treason,” an official told the outlet. The president was particularly irate about stories that detailed how he arrived at the decision to launch a war, officials said.
“The government’s subpoenas to The Wall Street Journal and our reporters represent an attack on constitutionally protected newsgathering,” its parent company Dow Jones’ chief communications officer Ashok Sinha said. “We will vigorously oppose this effort to stifle and intimidate essential reporting.”
Blanche has been hard at work trying to impress Trump in the hopes of securing the post vacated by Pam Bondi. The former deputy attorney general, who was previously Trump’s personal defense attorney, has been aggressively going after Trump’s foes, including former FBI Director James Comey, who was indicted for a second time after the first attempt failed.
Previous administrations have tried to go after journalists during leak inquiries, but the practice was stopped by the Biden administration. The First Amendment is supposed to protect journalists from persecution as they report, and the moves by the Trump administration have drawn criticism not just from publishers like the Journal’s parent company, but from advocates for civil rights and the freedom of the press.
