Jeff Sessions Vows To Make Journalists Famous By Jailing Them For Protecting Sources
Leakers are optimistic, sometimes stupidly so, that things can get better.
New White House Director of Information Control.
Yesterday, the Washington Post revealed classified transcripts of Donald Trump phone calls to world leaders. The fact that the leaks could have revealed sensitive, classified information got the “respectable journalism” world in a tizzy. The fact that all the transcripts did show was Trump being a lying, ineffectual, nincompoop wasn’t the real issue, we’ve been told.
I get it. The easiest story in the world to write right now, after the Washington Post or the New York Times scoops your publication into the ground, is the “counter-narrative.” That the President of the United States is a serial liar who embarrasses America every time he speaks for it — that’s “old news.”
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The thought that the real issue is the leaks, not the culture of lies and incompetence that produces the leaks, hasn’t just seized mainstream media outlets, it’s the operating principle of the White House.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions came out today and delivered a thoughtful message, recognizing that the leakers are afraid for their country. Sessions committed the administration to fostering the trust and pride that keeps employees from running to the press.
Just kidding. Sessions came out and threatened everybody like a drug kingpin who’s sick of people sampling the product. From the HuffPost:
“I have this message for our friends in the intelligence community. The Department of Justice is open for business and I have, this morning, this warning: Don’t do it,” Sessions said. “For the past several months we have made changes and are seriously ramping up our efforts.”…
“This nation must end this culture of leaks,” he went on. “We will investigate and seek to bring criminals to justice. We will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country.”
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I’ve got a name Sessions can start investigating: John Miller. That guy seems to know everything.
Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, went full Liam Neeson on the issue:
“For those out there who may be listening or watching these announcements, or who would later learn about what is said is morning, understand this,” he said. “If you improperly disclose classified information, we will find you. We will investigate you. We will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
Taken 45: I don’t have any particular skills, I don’t know what I’m looking for, and I have no idea what I’m doing.
Look, here at Above the Law we know a thing or two about anonymous sources with stories to tell about the places they work. A consistent thread — I’ve been here nine years this weekend — is that these people are not looking to “burn it down.” They don’t want their firm or company to suffer so much as they want it to “get better.” Disgruntled employees quit. Disheartened employees stay quiet. Dedicated employees fight (internally) and fight (externally) in the press when they believe that transparency will spur the organization into better policies or treatment.
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Leakers are optimistic, sometimes stupidly so, that things can get better.
On the other side of the phone is a reporter and, let me tell you, there are a bunch of them who would gladly go to jail to protect a source. There’s not a thing that you could do better for my career than jail me for refusing to give someone up. You’d turn me into a political prisoner. Come at me, bro. I’ve got my “Notes From A Jail Inside Trump Tower” halfway written already.
Of course, Sessions doesn’t want his fusillade assault on the First Amendment to sound like an assault on the First Amendment, so he couches this all in the language of “security.” Lekaers, and the reporters who publish their stories, put “lives at risk.” Like I said up top, that’s an argument that many mainstream media outlets are all too eager to parrot.
Given that messaging, it’s important to remember what Sessions and crew are really getting all pissy about. There’s only one person who is put in “danger” because of the leaks. Don’t lose the plot.
Here’s my favorite part of the leaked Trump conversation with Mexican President Peña Nieto:
We cannot say that anymore because if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that. I am willing to say that we will work it out, but that means it will come out in the wash and that is okay. But you cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall. I am just going to say that we are working it out. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about. But in terms of dollars – or pesos – it is the least important thing. I know how to build very inexpensively, so it will be much lower than these numbers I am being presented with, and it will be a better wall and it will look nice. And it will do the job.
And my pick for his conversation with Australian Prime Minister Turnbull:
Malcom [sic], why is this so important? I do not understand. This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position. It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week.
If Jeff Sessions wants to put people in jail for exposing that Trump is the “the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country,” and reminding people that Mexico won’t pay for the wall, in dollars OR pesos, then he can bring it.
Patriots have gone to jail for far less worthy causes than holding this administration accountable. Leaking and publishing information on how this president lies and deceives the world is not an American right, it’s an American duty.
Jeff Sessions Floats Media Subpoenas As Part Of Crackdown On Leaks [HuffPost]
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.
