Donald Trump hates whistleblower. He doesn’t like journalists either. He wants to punish both. In response to reports, which, according to early secret service stages of the Pentagon, showed that the recent government attacks on Iran were not as effective as the president claimed.
“They should be persecuted under criminal law,” said Trump, when Maria Bartiromo from “Fox Business” interviewed him to his claim that the Democrats had pierced the information. He added that the government could try to force reporters to reveal their sources. With the note: “National security.”
One way to combat whistleblovers and media is to use the spy law. A law of 1917 that punishes the transfer of sensitive information if this could endanger the national security of the United States or favor a foreign country. In the months before the beginning of his second term, Trump and several of his advisors and close allies, according to two sources, which were involved in these discussions, discussed how the spy law could not only be used against government employees and whistleblower. But also against media that have received secret or highly sensitive information.
“Why not against the press?”
“Why not against the press?” Trump is said to have said according to one of the sources. On the grounds that it makes no sense in his eyes that the law is traditionally only used against whistleblower. But not against journalists who publish secret information on national security.
Trump’s wish to use the spy law as a weapon did not subside six months after its second term. On the contrary, it has become stronger.
In the last few days – during an ongoing tantrum of seeping through intelligence information on the attacks against Iran on media such as CNN and the “New York Times” – the president has again spoken privately according to a source and a rank -high government official about using the spy law against reporters.
The President’s confidants listen. And – according to the government official – you are looking for the right case for your “maiden voyage” of an unprecedented use of the spy law. The aim is also to intimidate the media generally when it comes to the publication of secret government information or the protection of confidential sources.
Trump wants to go through it – it costs what it wants
Trump himself is particularly interested in the government to make a journalist to do without his protection through the first constitutional addition. And voluntarily reveal a source that cannot be clearly identified in other ways through internal investigations.
The sources say that they do not know whether the ongoing investigations due to the leak to the Iran attacks-which are carried out in cooperation with the FBI under the direction of the Trump-confidant Kash Patel-will ultimately offer such an opportunity. However, government officials and other Republicans close to Trump emphasize that high-ranking positions in the Ministry of Justice, in the White House and elsewhere, are actively looking for a sample case in which they could act against American reporters and their media as an alleged “co-snack”.
“Everything we really need is a single SMS or email from a reporter to a source. One in which it says: ‘Can you get me something?’ “If someone in the media is only careless for a moment, it can make the difference between a journalist and a criminal.”
Anna Kelly, spokeswoman for the White House, told Rolling Stone, when asked whether the government wanted to use the spy law against whistleblower and journalists. “The piercing of secret information is a crime. And anyone who threatens the national security of the United States must be held accountable.”
Obama opened the door – Trump blew it up
Under his presidency, Barack Obama allowed the Ministry of Justice to increasingly use the spy law against journalistic sources. And opened a door that Trump willingly re -enacted in his first term.
“Obama’s Ministry of Justice accused eight journalistic sources according to the spy law. More than all the US presidents in front of him”, reported “The Intercept” in 2019. “Donald Trump exceeded Obama’s eight-year record in just a little more than two years in office.”
An indictment according to the spy law against a journalist or a medium – just because they published information that annoyed Trump – would be a dark, significant step. Which inevitably triggered numerous constitutional challenges. Nevertheless, Trump and some of his faithful believe that they could have taken through harder in the first four years. And now want to catch up.
“Oh, it will be brutal,” said a conservative lawyer from Trump’s environment in December about the upcoming offensive against the press, whistleblower and anonymous sources. “We pulled our teachings from the first term. And one of them is that you have to be even more aggressive.”
The authoritarian screw is further attracted
In fact, the current government already fulfills its promises to tighten the authoritarian approach to the media and freedom of expression as a whole.
By the way, Trump also has a personal story with the spy law. Beyond his considerations to use it against journalists. The Ministry of Justice accused him of over 30 violations of the law after having heard a large number of highly sensitive government documents in his beach club in Florida. Aileen Cannon, who appointed district judge by Trump, dropped the charges last summer.