Trump's DOJ went to war against the press: Seizure of CNN reporter's personal records is chilling

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

You may recall that in the wake of Former FBI Director James Comey's firing in May of 2017, we got the first real reporting that clearly illustrated Donald Trump's authoritarian impulses as president. It was revealed that Trump went way beyond simply asking the then FBI director to go easy on his buddy Michael Flynn, which was bad enough. In Comey's meticulously detailed memorialization of that famous meeting alone with the new president, he claimed Trump told him he wanted him to jail reporters for publishing classified information. Considering the context for that meeting, it's pretty clear that Trump was referring to journalists who had published the information about Flynn conversing with the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. during the transition and lying about it to the FBI. Turns out that was hardly the last time Trump instructed his henchmen to go after journalists and their source.

Trump, along with the right's media apparatus, kept up the drumbeat against leaks, tweeting furiously on the subject for months after that, finally turning his sites on then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was already in the doghouse for following rules that required him to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump told the Wall Street Journal:

I'm very disappointed in the fact that the Justice Department has not gone after the leakers. And they're the ones that have the great power to go after the leakers, you understand … and I'm very disappointed in Jeff Sessions.

-snip-

Sessions dutifully declared war on leakers and had the DOJ follow up on every referral — and there were many. He managed to put some leakers in jail including some who were tangentially involved in the Russia probe. But he never followed through on Trump's order to go after the press, at least not to his satisfaction, no doubt adding to Trump's loathing of him.

His successor Bill Barr, however, seems to have taken the task much more seriously.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trumps-doj-went-to-war-against-the-press-seizure-of-cnn-reporters-personal-records-is-chilling/ar-AAKeYyz

[-misanthroptimist]

1. Republicans are evil

As with most evil movements, though, they believe that they are answering a higher calling. Therefore, anything evil they do will be forgiven. Trump wasn't (and isn't) a cause - he is a symptom.