A new low, even for Trump

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

In its final days, Trump’s administration waged a court battle – in secret – to force the handover of New York Times and CNN reporters’ email logs that could reveal who their sources were. Because of a gag order, Times and CNN editors and reporters were not allowed to know what was happening so they could defend themselves. The Biden administration continued to enforce the Trump policy until March.

The Trump Justice Department won a court order requiring Google to hand over email logs for four Times reporters, having already seized months of the reporters’ phone records back to early 2017. The government also targeted reporters from CNN and The Washington Post. A court order imposed on Google prevented the company from informing anyone at the Times. Then the gag was imposed on lawyers for the Times and CNN.

The date range of the email records sought by the Trump Justice Department coincides with reporting of classified information explaining investigations by then-FBI director James Comey of Russian election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign. The reporting may have been a sore point for Trump because of the likelihood he would not have won in 2016 without Russia’s help. Given his treatment of the department as his personal lawyer, the government surveillance of reporters bears all the hallmarks of a sinister and egregious abuse of powers.