Prosecutors were separately able to seize the reporters’ phone records without court orders. Those investigations involved leaks in 2017. In a separate leak investigation that was also revealed this spring, the Trump-era Justice Department obtained the phone records and some email records of a CNN reporter. Mr. Garland has embraced the idea of ending such seizures in meetings with newsroom leaders, and press-freedoms advocates praised his memo as a sweeping and significant change in how the department has operated under administrations of both parties. Jameel Jaffer, the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, called the new policy “an important step forward” while also calling it “crucial” that Congress enact Mr. Garland’s rules into law.

Source: New York Times July 19, 2021 16:28 UTC