JUST IN: Trump DOJ Reportedly Seized Phone Records of Four New York Times Reporters

Don Emmert / AFP / Getty Images

You may remember that last month, reports revealed that the Trump Justice Department seized the phone records of journalists from the Washington Pot and CNN..

Now there’s new reporting phone records of four New York Times reporters were seized as well.

The Times broke news Wednesday night that the phone records of reporters Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eric Lichtblau, and Michael Schmidt — from January to April 2017 — were seized by the DOJ in 2020.

The Justice Department did not say which article was being investigated. But the lineup of reporters and the timing suggested that the leak investigation related to classified information reported in an April 22, 2017, article the four reporters wrote about how James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, handled politically charged investigations during the 2016 presidential election.

Times executive editor Dean Baquet said in a statement, “Seizing the phone records of journalists profoundly undermines press freedom. It threatens to silence the sources we depend on to provide the public with essential information about what the government is doing.”

President Joe Biden was directly questioned on this issue two weeks ago, and he said he would “not let that happen” in his administration. The Obama administration received criticism when the DOJ obtained records of reporters at Fox News and the Associated Press — including Apuzzo and Goldman, who worked at the AP at the time.

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