Justice Department says it will no longer seek access to journalists’ records amid outcry over Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s bid to seize New York Times’ reporters’ email records

James Gordon:

Justice Department officials say they will no longer seek access to journalists’ phone and email records amid an outcry over the Trump and Biden administrations’ attempts to seize four New York Times journalists’ email records.

The White House has claimed that nobody was aware of a gag order which barred the Times from reporting the attempts to obtain its staffers’ communications until Friday night, with both the Biden administration and Justice Department since backtracking.

Donald Trump’s officials made the initial request for the records on January 5 this year to try and work out the source of White House leaks about former FBI Director James Comey, with that legal process continuing after Joe Biden took office.