On April 25, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi formally rescinded the Biden-era DOJ policy that prohibited the use of subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants against journalists and their communications providers in leak investigations. The policy, codified at 28 U.S.C. section 50.10 and known as the "news media guidelines," had been strengthened by Attorney General Merrick Garland in July 2021 after revelations that Trump's first administration had secretly subpoenaed journalists' records.
Bondi's memo stated explicitly: "I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland's policies precluding the Department of Justice from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks."
The memo retained nominal safeguards — subpoenaed news outlets are to be given advance notice and subpoenas must be "narrowly drawn," and warrants for reporters' materials "must include protocols designed to limit the scope of intrusion into potentially protected materials or newsgathering activities." But the fundamental protection — that DOJ would not compel journalists to reveal sources — was eliminated.
The rescission came in the context of an administration already hostile to the press, and amid active leak investigations. It removed the last formal barrier between the federal government's prosecutorial power and the ability of journalists to protect confidential sources. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the PRESS Act's congressional sponsors both warned the move would chill investigative journalism at exactly the moment it was most needed.