From WSJopinion: Going forward, the administration may find itself facing more damaging leaks and wanting to identify them using the same tactics as its predecessors. But doing so would be unwise, writes TeviTroy.
Potomac Watch:"Are you planning to continue carrying Fox News, Newsmax and OANN...? If so, why?” Democrats ask a dozen cable, satellite and broadband providers. Image: Kevin Hagen/Getty ImagesThe Biden administration took what seemed like an important step forward for the freedom of the press.
The key words are “going forward”—a tacit admission that the Justice Department under President Biden may have been using electronic data to hunt for leakers. This policy shift follows revelations that the department had continued a Trump administration effort to secure the email logs of four New York Times reporters. On Friday, Justice’s inspector general announced an investigation into leak hunting in the previous administration.
Unfortunately, neither the Trump nor Biden administration has been alone in this. Many of their predecessors have used aggressive methods and the latest technology to track down officials who shared too much information with reporters. President Lyndon B. Johnson hated leaks and fancied himself a bit of a detective in his efforts to identify their sources. He tasked White House telephone operators and motor-pool dispatchers with telling him whom aides called and where they went. “Even minor leaks irritated Johnson,” noted Joseph Califano, a top domestic-policy staffer. But aides sometimes went too far to meet LBJ’s standard of a leak-proof administration.
The Nixon administration became notorious for causing itself trouble in its quest for leakers. National security adviser Henry Kissinger was involved in bugging his own aide, Morton Halperin, over suspicion that Mr. Halperin had leaked classified information. Mr. Halperin sued Mr. Kissinger and received an apology—in 1991. Mr. Kissinger’s letter, made public in 1992, could have been more contrite: “Both of us have paid a price.
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