Trump Justice Dept. seized phone records of 4 NYT reporters

The Trump Justice Department secretly obtained the phone records of four New York Times reporters as part of a leak investigation

WASHINGTON -- The Trump Justice Department secretly obtained the phone records of four New York Times reporters as part of a leak investigation, the newspaper reported Wednesday. It is the third instance over the last month in which a news media organization has disclosed that federal authorities seized the records of its journalists in an effort to identify sources for national security stories published during President Donald Trump's administration. President Joe Biden has said he would not allow the Justice Department to continue the practice of obtaining reporters' records, calling it “simply, simply wrong.” Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said the department notified the four reporters on Wednesday that it had obtained their phone toll records last year and that it had sought to obtain non-content email records as part of “a criminal investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.”