The Department of Justice is moving to rescind the Biden administration’s policies that prevented the issuing of subpoenas to news outlets in order to crack down on leaks within the second Trump administration, according to an internal memo issued by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday.
In 2021, then–Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that federal prosecutors would be unable to seize reporters’ news-gathering materials through subpoenas. Bondi’s move is a complete reversal of that policy.
“Federal government employees intentionally leaking sensitive information to the media undermines the ability of the Department of Justice to uphold the rule of law, protect civil rights, and keep America safe. This conduct is illegal and wrong,
and it must stop,” Bondi wrote in the four-page memo.
“Therefore, I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland’s policies precluding the Department of Justice from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks.”
The Trump administration’s agenda has been undermined by apparent leaks in recent days, particularly regarding the Department of Defense’s controversy with sending sensitive information via the encrypted messaging app, Signal.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been at the center of the scandal, which started with the sharing of sensitive military information regarding planned air strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. The Signal chat in which this information was transmitted mistakenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, who published the text messages after the military operation last month.
The Signal chat controversy died down until news outlets reported earlier this week that Hegseth sent similar information on the Houthi strikes to a separate group chat that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, among other people. Hegseth was also said to have used Signal on a personal computer that had an unsecured internet connection in his Pentagon office to bypass security protocols, according to new reports.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied the allegations as they crop up. At least four Defense Department employees have been fired or resigned because of the leaks. The staffers have denied wrongdoing for their actions.
While the attorney general is threatening to crack down on leakers with subpoenas, she said the Department of Justice “will continue to employ procedural protections to limit the use of compulsory legal process to obtain information from or records of members of the news media” through “enhanced approval and advance-notice procedures.”
But in cases that warrant subpoenas, Bondi said the department “will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people.”
Under the new rules, news outlets and reporters are required to answer subpoenas when authorized. The recipients of subpoenas will be given advanced notice, the subpoenas themselves will be “narrowly drawn,” and search warrants must include protocols that limit what investigators are able to obtain, according to the memo.
A subpoena will be issued only after prosecutors “have made all reasonable attempts to obtain the information from alternative sources” and have “pursued negotiations with the affected member of the news media,” Bondi wrote. National security threats would present certain exceptions to the new guidelines.
The attorney general is also responsible for considering whether the subpoenaed information is necessary for the prosecution of a crime and for approving whether a journalist can be questioned or arrested.
Bondi’s move comes two days after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard made two criminal referrals to the Department of Justice over alleged leaks of classified information and revealed that a third referral was in the works.