News

Actions

Sessions won’t say if he’ll jail journalists

Posted at 2:52 PM, Oct 18, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-18 14:52:52-04

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is refusing to pledge that he won’t seek to jail journalists for doing their jobs.

Under questioning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, Sessions said he could not make that “blanket” commitment.

His position is a reversal of the stance taken by attorneys general in the Obama administration, who had said they would not seek to imprison members of the news media who were doing their jobs

The Trump administration has announced an aggressive crackdown on leaks of national security information to journalists.