United States: CFWIJ is concerned over the months-long secret court battle against Barbara Starr by the Trump administration

June 11, 2021- The Trump administration’s Department of Justice fought a months-long court battle in order to get hold of CNN’s Pentagon reporter, Barbara Starr’s phone and email records. The news was shared by Barbara's employer network on Wednesday, June 9. The general counsel for CNN David Vigilante shared that the secret court proceedings had started in July 2020. Barbara had reported on the Trump administration’s military policy on North Korea in 2018. The administration wanted the two months of her email log from 2017. It is being reported that David Vigilante was placed under a gag order by the Justice Department to not share any details regarding proceedings other than the news outlet’s president and legal team. CFWIJ considers it extremely concerning that such a secretive proceeding was carried out against a journalist without taking her on board. We consider this a state-level intimidation and violation of Barbara's integrity as a journalist. 

David Vigilante shared that he was prohibited from sharing any details regarding the government probe into the professional email correspondence of Barbara Starr. He said that such orders are often used in matters of national security but using them against a media organization was something new for him to understand. In the process of legal proceedings, Trump's Department of Justice was nowhere to negotiate or narrow the demand. David communicated to DOJ’s lawyers that out of 30,000 emails and messages, 26,000 were totally irrelevant to the investigation- but they refused to admit it. 

David further shared that the CNN legal team filed a motion to quash or at least narrow the scope of investigation on September 11, 2020. On October 7 the court asked the government to present its proposal to narrow down the scope of its search into the email records of Barbara Starr. The government submitted a secret affidavit on October 9 asking the court to reconsider its decision. After this, the court ordered CNN to follow the earlier ruling of July 2020 and reversed its decision. On December 16, 2020, the district finally heard the appeal filed by CNN and narrowed down the order for the search again. Finally, on January 26, 2021, CNN's legal team was able to reach a resolution with the Department of Justice under Biden’s administration. 

They were allowed to take Barbara Starr into confidence regarding the ongoing secretive court battle into her emails. The journalist was informed on May 13, 2021, through a notice for the first time since the proceeding had started. The News outlet was also informed for the first time regarding the Department of Justice's probe into the emails and messages of one of their staffers. There was no violation of any laws in the professional correspondence of Barbara. 

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is extremely concerned over such a secretive probe into the emails and messages of a journalist. It is extremely disturbing that the whole time the journalist remained uninformed of what was going on against her. We believe that the Department of Justice unlawfully targeted Barbara under Trump's administration and there was no reason to use such a secretive approach in this matter. We hope that the DOJ under the Biden administration will look into the details of this matter and issue a clarification.