In April, Bondi rescinded a Biden-era policy that prevented officials from searching reporters’ phone records when trying to identify government personnel who have provided sensitive information to news organizations.
Bondi said in an internal memo at the time that the media should not be afforded such protections, noting leaks of government information during the Trump administration.
“This conduct is illegal and wrong and it must stop,” she wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.
But Bondi said that the Justice Department would search reporters’ communication records only when other investigative methods had been exhausted. The search warrant and seizures appeared to be Natanson’s first interaction with investigators.
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grok summary of 1971, 2013 and more recent government searching reporters activity.