Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan, June 6, 2021, criticizes President Joe Biden’s Justice Department for continuing the Trump administration’s spying on reporters. Ryan said the department continued to solicit subpoenas of phone records and only stopped the practice when news reports revealed its efforts.
The Biden administration scrambled to reverse the practice after The New York Times reputed that there was a gag order preventing them from revealing a court fight over attempts to obtain the e-mail records of four reporters. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said no one was aware of the gag order until Friday but that issuing subpoenas in investigations of leaks was out of step with Biden’s directives to the Justice Department. (The Associated Press, June 5, 2021, by Eric Tucker)