Trump’s Justice Department went on a media-eavesdropping blitz

Consider that the records seizures in these cases occurred three years after the reportorial activities in question. How, then, could the Justice Department justify plowing ahead with the secret subpoenas? “We need to hear from the DOJ as to how that test could credibly have been met when the newsgathering took place three years earlier,” says Brown, who says that the department has expressed a willingness to meet for a review of these circumstances. One topic of discussion will be the staying power of the guidelines. If the department blows off negotiations with a news organization in one case, “maybe it’s an aberration,” says Brown. “If you have two cases, it’s a much bigger story. If you have three cases, it doesn’t look like a presumption anymore,” he continues.