Justice Dept. curbs ability to target journalists about leaks

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder, who’s been under fire in recent months for targeting reporters as part of leak investigations, released revised guidelines Friday that would make it more difficult for the federal government to seize journalists’ email and phone records.

The guidelines call for more oversight by senior officials in media-related cases and additional barriers to obtaining a search warrant for a journalist’s records unless that reporter is the focus of a criminal investigation.

The guidelines come after the public learned that the Justice Department had secretly seized the telephone records of reporters at The Associated Press and had investigated a Fox News correspondent as a potential criminal for doing his job as part of President Barack Obama’s unprecedented crackdown on classified national security leaks.

All requests for records now will be sent to the Criminal Division’s Office of Enforcement Operations and then to the attorney general. The new guidelines also call for creating a standing committee to advise the attorney general and deputy attor- ney general about mediarelated cases. In addition, Justice Department employees will undergo better training to deal with such cases.

Obama, who’s said he was trying to strike a balance between the news media’s First Amendment protections against government censorship and the nation’s national security interests, directed Holder to review his department’s guidelines for investigations that involve reporters. The president has said he isn’t interested in prosecuting reporters.

Holder has been meeting with editors and media lawyers. Some editors declined to participate.