Trump's AG declares war on media by reversing Biden-era policy (2025)

Attorney General Pam Bondi has pledged to reverse a controversial Biden-era policy that allowed journalists to hide information related to criminal investigations.

President Trump's top prosecutor announced the move in a memo first shared by Axios, branding the former policy 'illegal and wrong' and saying it undermined the authority of the Justice Department.

The former policy allowed journalists to hide testimony and records from the Justice Department even if they related to suspects in criminal investigations the federal government was pursuing.

'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,' Bondi said in her memo.

Bondi added that targeting reporters would not be a regular tactic for her department, and said the new policy would represent 'anextraordinary measure to be deployed as a last resort when essential to a successful investigation or prosecution.'

The Attorney General's stand comes as several top advisors in the Pentagon were fired in recent weeks after allegedly leaking information to the media.

Bondi scathed in her memo this week that government officials were using 'media allies' to leak insider secrets and gossip for their own gain, saying they 'abused Garland's overly broad procedural protections.'

She said the leaks 'have not abated since President Trump's second inauguration', but the Biden-era protections were preventing the DOJ from tracking down some leaks.

Bondi's reversal is a stark change from how Garland approached the press, with Biden's DOJ instituting several policies protecting media freedom and whistleblowers, including how prosecutors can obtain information from journalists.

Under Garland, prosecutors could not seek out information from the news media if reporters were acting within the scope of news gathering, except under certain circumstances, per Fox News.

In response to Bondi's memo this week,Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of Press, told the outlet that he was concerned by how Trump may look to restrict the freedom of the press.

'We’ll wait to see what the policy looks like, but we know reporters will still do their jobs, and there is no shortage of legal support to back them up,' he said.

The move comes as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard referred two intelligence officials to Bondi's Department of Justice for prosecution after they were allegedly caught leaking classified information.

Gabbard said she plans on issuing a referral for a third 'deep state' insider, alleging the three individuals leaked secrets to the Washington Post and the New York Times.

'Politicization of our intelligence and leaking classified information puts our nation's security at risk and must end,' Gabbard, a former Democrat, said.

'Those who leak classified information will be found and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,' she vowed.

The move to refer the three officials for criminal prosecution comes as Trump officials ramp up their investigations into possible leak, with Gabbard establishing a new task force last month to root out unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence.

She said at the time that a 'leaker within the IC sharing information on Israel / Iran with the Washington Post' was among the 'unauthorized leaks' she was looking at, according to Axios.

Bondi's campaign against leaks comes at a busy time for her DOJ, as she also recently announced she would seek the death penalty against alleged assassin Luigi Mangione.

Mangione is seeking to throw out the possible death sentence as his defense argues Bondi's prosecutors are acting in a 'political, arbitrary and capricious' way.

Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com claim that seeking the execution of Mangione was done so with political motivations, and to 'carry out Trump's agenda.'

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