Democrats had a shot to protect journalists from Trump. She blew it.

Attorney General Pam Bondi distributed plans within the Ministry of Justice last week to protect rules for the protection of journalists and their sources from surveillance and lectures on flattering covers and leaks. Bondis Memo immediately ran to the press.

“This Ministry of Justice will not tolerate authorized disclosures that undermine the policy of President Trump, to victims of the American people,” says the memo. “I came to the conclusion that it is necessary to lift [former attorney general] Merrick Garland's guidelines, which prevents the Ministry of Justice from looking for records and convincing statements by members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of inappropriate leaks. “

Removal of these rules is the latest signal for an impending threat to reporters who are exposed to lectures and were looking for arrest warrants to publish information that President Donald Trump would prefer to be secret. Journalists who oppose the legal claim, disclose their sources, could be exposed to fines or even prison terms.

But it didn't have to be that way.

Long before Trump has been re -elected to punish unfavorable reporters and outlets, Free Press Advocates warned that the rules of the lifted Ministry of Justice were an inadequate sign. The Biden Doj recently revised the rules in 2022 in view of the revelations about the first Trump government for journalists to smoke leakage. Even when it offered its own leaks for friendly sales outlets, the first Trump -Doj ignored previous versions of the rules that are not enforceable in court.

Last year, the Democrats of the Senate had a clear opportunity to make the basic protection for journalists a question of the bond of the federal government and mere policy, which could be reversed with a memo displayed by Vendetta. After years of debate on the right scope of a Federal Schield Act for Reporters, the Press Act unanimously passed the House of Representatives and had a cross -party list of Senate sponsors, including the Republican Lindsay Graham from South Carolina.

Then democratic leaders blew it.

For months they have had the press law sitting in the Senate Justice Committee without hearing, although the chairman of this committee, Dick Durbin, D-il., Was the co-sponsor of the law.

After the election, Trump asked that the Republicans kill the law. Chuck Schumer, Dn.Y., swore that the press law was a top priority for its last weeks as chairman of the Senate master. But neither he nor Durbin tried to move the legislation itself or as part of the legislation such as the defense budget. They removed the insurance and support for the press, but no measures.

In mid-December, Senator Ron Wyden, D-ORE, the main sponsor of the press law, tried to advance it himself and to bring the bill to the Senate when applying for unanimous consent. A single Republican, Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas, blocked it with a great speech about the evils of LECKS and “American -ranking and renowned journalists”, as he had done with previous versions of the press law.

“Everyone predicted that this would happen in a second Trump government, but politicians could be able to prevent empty rhetoric.”

Despite the predictable opposition, the Senate Democrats had no strategic plan to counteract him – except for a speech by Schumer – and the press law died at the end of the session. Durbin's office accused the failure of the press law on Cotton's obstacle, but did not answer why Durbin had the draft law recorded in his committee. Durbin recently announced that he will retire after more than four decades in the congress. Schumer's office did not respond to the questions of the Intercept.

“Every democrat who put the press act on the background when he had the opportunity to say goodbye to a non -partisan law should be ashamed,” said Seth Stern, director of the interests of the freedom of the Press Foundation, in an explanation after Bondis came out.

“Everyone predicted that this would happen in a second Trump government, but politicians could be able to prevent empty rhetoric.”

Barely three months In the second Trump -Doj, several studies on reporters have already started sources for embarrassing stories.

In March, Todd Blanche, Attorney General of Bondi, announced a criminal investigation into the leak of classified information on the times about Tren de Aragua, which contradicted many basic claims in the White House about the Venezuelan gang.

Last week, director of the National Secret Services Tulsi Gabbard announced that she had transferred two leaks of classified information for criminal investigations to Doj, including a “latest illegal leak for Washington Post”. In the past that day, the mail reported new details about the use of Defense Minister Pete Hegseth. Gabard said a third transfer was “on the way”.

Several agencies forced federal employees suspect to carry out polygraphent tests, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Hegseth, who is obsessed with it, to find out who triggered details of his own terrible security practices, also threatens to use Lie detectors.

Which procedural protection for journalists will remain when Bondi and her MPs pursue these investigations is still unknown. Her memo was clear that the rules of the bidges were lifted, but details about what could take their place. The memo referred to the recent updates in the provisions of the doj and the federal regulations, but the updated language has not yet been published, and the Doj did not respond to the Intercept request for copies.

If the previous rules carried out onwards against reporters except for narrow circumstances, Bondis Memo emphasized the lack of clear legal protection for journalists in relation to such lectures in the context of the precedent of the Supreme Court.

Trump “can and will almost certainly abuse the legal system to examine and follow his critics and journalists with whom they are talking,” said Stern in his explanation.

Such abuse can take many forms, including the use of lectures to obtain the telephone and e -mail data records of a reporter who carried out the first Trump -Doj for at least eight reporters in three national branches: the Washington Post, CNN and the New York Times. The Obama government tried to force the former reporter of the New York Times, James Risen, who later joined the Intercept, to testify about his sources, but finally dropped the effort.

According to Bondis Memo, a summons for the testimony of a reporter, the notes or the correspondence “an extraordinary measure, which must be used as the last way out, should be closely drawn and” improved approval and progress procedure “that Bondi did not carry out. All arrests of reporters would be exposed to their personal homepage, as well as the inquiries to question journalists.

“Trump does not advise the foundation for the locking of reporters who uncover their sources, the crimes by his administration,” wrote Wyden, the sponsor of the Senate of the Press Act, about Bluesky after the Bondi memo came out. “I have a cross -party bill that would take these protective measures on iron -to -iron.