Trump’s Return Poses Threat To Whistleblowers, Freedom of The Press

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The return of former President Donald Trump to the White House presents a distinct threat to whistleblowers and freedom of the press, and President Joe Biden and Democrats bear some responsibility.

As previously noted by Chip Gibbons, the policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent, the Heritage Foundation and around 140 individuals with ties to Trump developed an agenda for the next Trump administration known as Project 2025. It calls for the United States Justice Department (DOJ) to “use all of the tools at its disposal to investigate leaks.”

To facilitate this crackdown on whistleblowers or media sources, Project 2025 additionally urges the DOJ to repeal guidelines that were adopted under Attorney General Merrick Garland to limit “law enforcement” access to journalists’ communications. It also demands the hiring of “additional counterintelligence and security personnel” to help the FBI and other agencies prosecute those who communicate with reporters.

For example, the inspector general for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently confirmed that three EPA scientists were subjected to whistleblower retaliation when they refused to alter their assessments of new chemicals to make them seem less hazardous.  

The EPA told ProPublica that the whistleblower retaliation occurred during the Trump administration “when the political leadership placed intense pressure on both career managers and scientists in EPA’s new chemicals program to more quickly review and approve new chemicals.”

Martin Phillips, one of the scientists who faced retaliation, said, “I’m worried about the future because there are groups out there pushing for changes to the civil service that would make it so I could be fired and replaced with a non-scientist.” 

But without discounting the risks that Trump presents for future whistleblowers, the EPA scientists filed their complaints with the EPA inspector general in June 2021. A comprehensive series by Sharon Lerner for The Intercept covered their allegations, and the “industry pressure” that they fought to resist continued under Biden. 

When Trump was president, his administration charged NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, FBI whistleblower Terry Albury, drone whistleblower Daniel Hale, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with violating the Espionage Act. The Biden administration allowed the prosecutions against Hale and Assange to continue until they ended in plea agreements. 

Trump was furious over what he described as “criminal” leaks from within his administration. He took to Twitter and exclaimed, “Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years.” However, it was recognized by then-Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan that President Barack Obama's administration "created a blueprint" that the Trump administration simply followed.

Democrats and Republicans have done nothing to curtail the power of the Espionage Act to silence both whistleblowers and journalists. There is virtually nothing standing in the way of the Trump Justice Department if and when they wield this 1917 law like Biden and Obama did. (Obama prosecuted more leakers under the Espionage Act than all previous presidents combined.) 

Miriam Adelson, the widow of Republican megadonor Sheldon Addison, gave Trump over $100 million to fund his reelection. The Adelsons bankrolled a large part of Trump’s first campaign, and in return, he moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This round Miriam Adelson would like the U.S. to support the Israeli government’s annexation of the West Bank, where a staggering number of journalists have been held in administrative detention. 

The Israeli military, supported and armed with a seemingly endless supply of U.S. weapons, has killed over 180 journalists in Gaza since October 7, 2023. That is unlikely to end under Trump and no thanks to Biden officials, who are complicit and largely responsible for these deaths.

The Biden administration and leadership in the U.S. Senate could have passed legislation that would establish a national reporter’s shield law. It would make it harder for the FBI and other agencies to force members of the press to reveal their sources. But the Biden administration has not really said whether they support expanding protections for reporters, and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin has declined to move the bill out of the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs. 

What is at risk here is much more significant than the loss of decency. Disrespecting journalists or members of the media will most likely be the least of our problems during Trump’s second term.

Feckless Democrats who still remain in a few positions of authority in the U.S. government will speak with urgency now that Trump has humiliated them again, but it’s too late. They will not be able to protect whistleblowers from vindictive retaliation nor will they be able to do anything meaningful to stop any unprecedented attacks on journalists. 

In the U.S., this is a dark moment for freedom of the press and freedom of speech for government employees and contractors. Biden, Kamala Harris, Obama, Senator Chuck Schumer, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and other Democratic leaders must answer for their failure and disinterest in opposing the constellation of groups aligned with Trump, which made it clear that they would not restrain themselves.

Democrats will now try to co-opt whatever we do and put us at risk of being discredited as Democratic Party partisans. Regardless, we have to hold to our principles (as I did under Obama, Trump's first term, and Biden).

Let's recognize that Trump and Republicans will only back down from their insidious agenda if we build a coalition of people organized against their well-known plans and stand up for these freedoms.

The climate will be chilly, especially if Trump-aligned billionaires target reporters and media outlets with frivolous lawsuits intended to stifle their journalism. But we must fight back. Or else we lose whatever hope we have of defending the right of all citizens to know the truth of what their government does in their name.