Rosenstein, DOJ exploring ways to more easily spy on journalists | TheHill
https://thehill.com/...iciary/425189-rosenstein-doj-exploring-ways-to-more-easily-spy-on-journalists
For months now, the Department of Justice (DOJ) quietly has been working on a revision to its guidelines governing how, when and why prosecutors can obtain the records of journalists, particularly in leak cases.
...
In layman’s terms, the current system requires prosecutors in most cases to exhaust all obvious investigative methods for identifying leaks before seeking to intrude on a journalist’s free-speech rights.
In addition, the rules generally have required DOJ to alert news organizations in advance of a possible subpoena, giving both sides a chance to negotiate before the subpoena — viewed as a nuclear button by most journalists — gets pushed.
Multiple sources familiar with the ongoing DOJ review tell me that it has two main goals. The first is to lower the threshold that prosecutors must meet before requesting subpoenas for journalists’ records; the second is to eliminate the need to alert a media organization that Justice intends to issue a subpoena.
...
the arguments for changing the rules emanate from the stresses that a massive increase in criminal leak investigations have placed on the DOJ.
Sessions disclosed more than a year ago that there has been a threefold increase in criminal leak probes, which have ensnared everyone from fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe to a senior Senate staffer who handled classified documents.
Advocates for the change argue that prosecutors have spent inordinate time and resources trying to find leakers that could be more easily detected via the reporting news organization’s subpoenaed records. The savings in resources could be deployed to other criminal enforcement endeavors, advocates argue.