OPINION | I’m a journalist, and the Trump administration secretly tried to obtain tens of thousands of my emails

Editor’s note: Barbara Starr is a CNN Pentagon correspondent. The opinions expressed in this comment are yours. See more opinion pieces on CNN.

(CNN) – Finally, now is an appropriate time to discuss the Trump administration’s months-long efforts to secretly gain access to tens of thousands of my 2017 personal and work emails and my personal and work phone records.

On Monday, senior staff from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are scheduled to meet with Attorney General Merrick Garland to seek a full explanation of why eight reporters from the three news organizations were targeted. secret efforts to obtain your records.

Speaking for myself, I don’t know what the government was looking for when it sneaked into my life. I am not the subject of an investigation and there are no indications of wrongdoing. But as a CNN reporter, my newsroom and I were clearly being used as a tool by the Trump Justice Department. All of CNN is in this together. We support each other, always.

President Biden has said that the seizure of journalists’ records will stop under his administration. But with all due respect to him and his stated intentions, that’s a promise of limited relevance. Unless new protections are codified, all of this could happen again to any journalist. Secret procedures, gag orders so CNN lawyers can’t talk to me, and eight reporters involved in unexplained investigations – these are not parts of a free press in America.

I am really horrified by what happened. I have covered the military as a CNN correspondent at the Pentagon for nearly 20 years and have always been honored to say that I am part of the extraordinary fraternity known as the Pentagon press corps.

Since the morning the plane crashed into the building on September 11, we have traveled into danger with troops to cover America’s wars. Some journalists have died in this effort. None of us should forget: America’s military is committed to upholding the Constitution, and that includes First Amendment protections for a free press.

Simply put, America’s military is willing to die to protect all of our rights, including freedom of the press. The Justice Department must also find a way to absolutely protect a free and functional press.

Covering wars and threats to national security often means finding out what the government doesn’t want us to know in order to uncover the essential truth. The press corps will not stop in that search. Our First Amendment rights are non-negotiable.

I had absolutely no knowledge that there were secret court proceedings against me in 2020 until the end of May 2021, when CNN’s top attorney, David Vigilante, was cleared to tell me that there was a letter from the Justice Department waiting for me in the office. from CNN in Washington.

The letter had only a few lines, from now the Biden Justice Department, notifying me that they had my records but apparently no actual content. I also learned that CNN had successfully reduced the scope of the original lawsuit from more than 30,000 emails that included a large number of emails that were clearly unrelated to their investigation.

All of the material eventually turned over to the Justice Department by order of a judge involved communications over a two-month period in 2017. But it wasn’t until 2020 that the Justice Department argued that they needed to view my 2017 communications for what we believe it to be. part of a national security leak investigation. We don’t know why it took years for this to happen.

In my opinion, this is all a pure abuse of power, first against CNN and against myself, since our work is and must always be protected by the First Amendment. But what is more important and more significant, it is an abuse against the free press in this country, whether you are a correspondent for a television network or a reporter in a small town newspaper who discovers irregularities.

I started my career at a small town community newspaper and, looking back, it may have been the best job I’ve ever had. The editor-in-chief gave me free rein to speak to anyone and everyone, and soon I had people calling me with data and information. My work focused heavily on the big developers who had come to town.

I wonder now, more than ever, what happens if those in power try to intimidate reporters whose small newsrooms, like mine in those days, can’t afford to have legal teams to fight back. So how will the people of that small town know about possible wrongdoing?

Even if you don’t like the media, keep in mind: The Justice Department’s secret proceedings against the free press affect everyone in this country. That’s what I hope Merrick Garland takes away from this whole regrettable affair.