Press freedom groups denounced Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's declaration this week that a journalist was "down another source" after her department "caught another prolific leaker," whom she'll refer for criminal prosecution.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's escalating efforts to find and prosecute government sources who leak to reporters reflects a broader effort to assert control over information flow, which Committee to Protect Journalists' Katherine Jacobsen on Thursday called "terrifying."
- The pattern suggests these actions are less about national security and more about punishing scrutiny, threatening independent reporting, press freedom experts say.
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press president Bruce Brown said in an emailed statement Wednesday night: "Government sources bring to light issues that deserve public scrutiny. Targeting them has a chilling effect and makes it difficult for others to come forward, which is undoubtedly the administration's goal."
Driving the news: Noem's post on X that alleges leaks put DHS law enforcement at risk comes amid speculation on her role at the department, as she faces criticism over inaccurate information that claimed immigration agents fatally shot an armed Minnesota protester last month because he wanted to "massacre" them.
- Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, questioned Noem's claims in Wednesday's post that DHS officials faced an "8,000%" increase in death threats and said Tump administration officials used such statistics without citing sources in order to "justify their attacks on transparency."
- When asked for comment on whether the Trump administration's actions marked an attack on free speech, DHS responded by resharing Noem's post in an emailed statement on Wednesday night. The White House referred Axios to DHS for comment.
The big picture: The crackdown began last April when the Department of Justice ended a Biden-era policy against subpoenaing journalists, with Attorney General Pam Bondi announcing attempts to seize reporters' phone records in order to smoke out leakers would resume.
- That month, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced several criminal referrals over alleged classified information leaks and the Pentagon placed two top officials on administrative leave as part of an investigation into leaks at the Defense Department.
- Noem announced in March her department had "identified criminal leakers within" DHS and she was referring them to the DOJ for "felony prosecutions."
- In January, the FBI searched the home and devices of a Washington Post reporter. Later that month, journalist Don Lemon was arrested while covering an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church.
What they're saying: Jacobsen, CPJ's U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator, noted in a phone interview that ICE is now the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. and questioned what kind of accountability mechanism there is for journalists if they can't fulfill their watchdog role.
- Stern said in his emailed statement: "Without leaks we wouldn't know about ICE claiming authority to enter homes without warrants, DHS baselessly labeling protesters as domestic terrorists, ICE surveillance tools pulling from vast pools of data from across the government, ICE officials coordinating with the White House to push propaganda and countless other important stories."
The bottom line: "The Trump administration, as much as they've said they want to protect and promote free speech, they want to protect and promote only their own narrative about what is happening in this country and about the impact that their policies are having by making it incredibly difficult for journalists to do their jobs," Jacobsen said.
- "And to protect their sources while doing their jobs, it stymies the free flow of information and makes it a lot more difficult to have any sort of vestige of government accountability if journalists have no ability to protect their sources. And that occurs when the government can go after leakers via a journalist."
Go deeper: Stripping journalists' legal protections
Editor's note: Axios' Kerry Flynn contributed reporting.
