President-elect Donald Trump asked Congress to investigate a leak to NBC prior to his receiving the information in an intelligence briefing. The news provided NBC concerned the Russian cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and contained some details not heard by Trump until his briefing, particularly, that the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department and American corporations were also attacked. With no crucial breach of state secrecy or illegal acts by NBC, the main concern is that Trumps reaction may herald an even more determined crackdown on government leaks than seen during the Obama administration. (The Washington Post, January 6, 2017, by Callum Borchers)
Observers think that it is unlikely that Congress would even take up such an investigation of who was responsible for leaking classified news. The last time Congress called in a reporter to get him to reveal sources was in 1976 when the House ethics committee subpoenaed CBS reporter Daniel Schorr over leaks of a House classified report into illegal CIA activities. Schoor prevailed. It is more likely that the Justice Department would be responsible for investigating leaks. Schoor’s lawyer Joseph Califano who served in the Johnson and Carter administrations said the government is paranoid about leaks, but there is so much power in the federal government that the press needs to protect its sources. “If the press didn’t have confidential sources, we would be a much less free country. There’s no question about it,” said Califano. (Politico, January 8, 2017, by Peter Sterne)