AG Garland
© Mandel Ngan/ReutersAttorney General Merrick Garland
Fred Ryan, publisher of the Washington Post, contends, "Something appears to be 'simply, simply wrong' at the Biden Justice Department." Ryan objected to the methods used to gain reporters records during leak investigations, and in particular, that instead of reversing decisions of the previous administration that Ryan believes impeded upon reporters' First Amendment rights, the Biden Justice Department, under new attorney general Merrick Garland, accelerated them.
After Biden took office, the department continued to pursue subpoenas for reporters' email logs issued to Google, which operates the New York Times' email systems, and it obtained a gag order compelling a Times attorney to keep silent about the fact that federal authorities were seeking to seize his colleagues' records. Later, when the Justice Department broadened the number of those permitted to know about the effort, it barred Times executives from discussing the legal battle with the Times newsroom, including the paper's top editor.

This escalation, on Biden's watch, represents an unprecedented assault on American news organizations and their efforts to inform the public about government wrongdoing.

Last month, The Post learned of secret subpoenas authorized by President Donald Trump's outgoing attorney general to obtain email information and home, cell and office telephone records of three Post reporters over a 3½-month span in 2017. We immediately requested an explanation and answers to several questions from the Justice Department as well as a meeting with the attorney general.

To date, no answers have been provided and the meeting has yet to take place. This delay is troubling. When asked about how the president's assurances can be squared with his Justice Department's behavior, White House press secretary Jen Psaki could offer no explanation. She subsequently released a statement disavowing White House knowledge of the actions that appear to have continued for several months during Biden's presidency.
Ryan's op-ed bristles with a palpable sense of betrayal; the Post may have expected this sort of thing from the Trump administration, but they expected better from Biden's incoming team. The new boss, it turns out, is not all that different from the old boss.

Those of us with less optimistic assessments of Joe Biden are somewhat less than shocked that what Biden promised and what Biden delivers are no closer than distant cousins. After all, in this young presidency, we've seen Biden
  • Drop his opposition to Nord Stream 2,
  • Break his promise to not hold children in detention centers,
  • Break his promise to send out $2,000 stimulus checks,
  • Break his promise to establish a national commission on policing,
  • To not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000,
  • To punish the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman,
  • His promise to end the use of standardized testing in schools,
  • Drop plans for a public option in health care,
  • Kick the can down the road on a proposal to cut prescription drug costs,
  • Raise the estate tax, and
  • Forgive a significant amount of student debt...
About the Author:
Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent of National Review. @jimgeraghty