According to Politico, DOJ moved to compel testimony from journalists covering national security at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. The Post reported that reporter Ellen Nakashima received a subpoena and called it a press freedom violation. The department later appeared to back off the demand.
The threat works even when it fails. If reporters can be hauled before grand juries in leak cases, sources hear the warning first. Government sources already operating behind walls of secrecy now face a new calculation: talk to a journalist and risk being named in a federal investigation. The result is less reporting on the parts of government that need it most.
Whether this was a one-off retreat or a preview of a broader legal strategy against leak reporting remains unclear. Newsrooms and civil-liberties groups will be tracking the next subpoena, not the last statement from DOJ.
A failed subpoena still works. The government doesn't need to win in court to chill reporting. It just needs to show it's willing to drag national security journalists into the machinery of an investigation. Every future source now has Ellen Nakashima's name in mind.
Filed to the Media desk · Jun 23