The New York Times revealed on June 7 that the Justice Department had seized records for two email accounts and a mobile account belonging to Times reporter Ali Watkins in connection with an investigation into alleged leaks of information regarding the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's (SSCI) probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The metadata, from Watkins' Verizon and Google accounts, spanned years, dating back to when she was a college student. Watkins was informed of the seizure in a letter from the Justice Department.

The records were seized as evidence in the case of James Wolfe, former director of security for the SSCI, who is alleged to have leaked classified information provided by the government to the committee to Watkins and other reporters. Wolfe's indictment alleges that Watkins and Wolfe had a romantic relationship dating back to 2013, when Watkins was a college student and intern with a news organization in Washington. Watkins worked at Buzzfeed and Politico before joining The New York Times in December.

Wolfe is alleged to have leaked information to Watkins that, among other things, exposed Trump campaign staffer Carter Page as the individual (identified as "Male-1" in court documents) Russian agents attempted to recruit in 2013. The FBI seized Watkins' emails and phone records dating back to 2014 as part of the investigation of Wolfe.

"From in or around mid-2014 through in or around December 2017, WOLFE and REPORTER #2 exchanged tens of thousands of electronic communications," the Justice Department asserted in the indictment, "often including daily texts and phone calls, and they frequently met in person at a variety of locations including Hart Senate Office Building stairwells, restaurants, and REPORTER #2's apartment. WOLFE and REPORTER #2 also communicated with each other through encrypted ceIl phone applications." Wolfe is also alleged to have used encrypted messaging applications to tip off other reporters.

Wolfe was interviewed by the FBI in December of 2017, according to the indictment, and initially denied in a signed investigative questionnaire having any professional or personal contact with reporters. When asked about a story written by Watkins, identified in the indictment as "Reporter #2," he denied knowing who her source for the story was. "After WOLFE stated that he did not know about REPORTER #2's sources," the indictment reads, "FBI agents confronted WOLFE with pictures showing WOLFE together with REPORTER #2. After being confronted, WOLFE admitted to the FBI agents that he had lied to them and that he had engaged in a personal relationship with REPORTER #2 since 2014, but maintained that he (WOLFE) had never disclosed to REPORTER #2 classified information or information that he learned as Director of Security for the SSCI that was not otherwise publicly available. WOLFE also stated that he never provided REPORTER #2 with news leads, intelligence, or information about non-public SSCI matters."

While this is the first time that the Trump administration's Justice Department has aggressively gone after reporters' electronic communications, the Obama administration also pursued reporters' records during President Obama's first term. During his second term, the Justice Department adopted new rules limiting probes into reporters' records for many types of cases. But that was just policy, as Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology, pointed out in an interview with Ars, and not actual legal protection.