President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on the free press appear to have hit a snag. According to MS NOW’s Ari Melber, the administration’s latest legal move in its investigation of The New York Times could amount to “bad faith harassment” and risks jeopardizing the government’s case.
On Monday, a Manhattan judge unsealed new documents in the Justice Department’s probe of the Times over its reporting on security concerns regarding the president’s new Air Force One, presented by Qatar. A new motion filed by the outlet said the government had not only issued subpoenas to third-party phone service providers for several journalists’ phone and text messaging records, but it had also requested information about the devices of two of the reporters’ spouses.
“That matters a lot, because if there was not a valid, good-faith legal reason to do so, if that was rather part of an effort at collective punishment or harassing the family members, that itself could be illegal,” Melber explained.
The MS NOW host said the motion contained “credible allegations” that the subpoenas weren’t issued “to solve crimes, which under law would be OK but potentially may be the kind of bad-faith harassment that means it’s the DOJ, allegedly, and not The New York Times that might be in the wrong.”
When asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department told the Times that any subpoena issued by the agency is “done so in full compliance with federal law and internal department policy.”
A hearing in the government’s case against the Times is scheduled for later this week.
Melber characterized the Trump’s persecution of the reporters as part of a wider effort to “go after critics and his perceived enemies.”
“All of this is happening alongside major shifts in media,” Melber explained, noting that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, a Trump ally, is currently in the process of acquiring CNN as part of a larger merger with Warner Bros. (On Monday, a judge temporarily paused that deal in connection with a suit brought by a group of 12 state attorneys general.)
Melber said Trump hasn’t been shy about voicing support for a change in ownership. “He’s also been very public about what in any other era would be seen as itself a confession or a scandal: that he views the people taking over these companies — the Ellisons getting CNN, for example — as a chance to have a good owner change the editorial coverage,” Melber said.
“The Beat” host said such headlines should worry every American. “The concern is that we have a government abusing power to change what you see and hear, to distort the very fundamental protections of the First Amendment,” he explained.
You can watch Melber’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.
The post Ari Melber on how Team Trump may have jeopardized its NYT investigation appeared first on MS NOW.
