White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dug herself into a hole on Friday while attempting to distance the current administration’s policies on seizing reporters’ phone records with previous ones.
Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, Psaki made the comments after being asked about CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reportedly being informed this week that the Trump administration secretly sought and obtained her phone and email records in 2017.
“They certainly intend to use the Holder model as their model,” the chief White House spokeswoman replied when asked about the report, referencing Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder.
Holder revised DOJ rules in 2013 to restrict the government’s ability to subpoena the records of reporters without express consent from the top of the department.
While those changes were praised, Holder came under fire that same year when it was learned that he had approved the seizing of call records from Associated Press reporters and a then-Fox News correspondent.
In 2014, Holder expressed deep regret over seizing emails and other tracking done by his DOJ to the Fox correspondent — James Rosen, now with Sinclair Broadcasting — saying, “I think about the subpoena to the Fox reporter, Rosen,” when asked what he would do over.
Holder was referring to a 2010 search warrant application seeking Rosen’s emails as the Justice Department tried to find out who leaked information contained in a series of reports by Rosen the year before about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
In the Starr case, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions would have needed to approve the effort to obtain them.
When a reporter returned to the topic later in Psaki’s briefing, asking what part of the “Holder model” the Biden Justice Department, led by AG Merrick Garland, intended to maintain, Psaki snarked, “We’re not gonna follow the Barr model,” referencing former Trump Attorney General William Barr.
It is not clear how Barr, who served after Sessions and resigned before former President Donald Trump left office, is relevant to the matter.
“I would point you to our Department of Justice as to how they will approach that issue,” Psaki added, noting that officials were “going to be meeting with journalists to hear their concerns, and certainly we will continue to advocate for freedom of press, freedom of expression in the United States, of course, and around the world.”
