WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 4: House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) speaks during a live television broadcast on Capitol Hill, December 4, 2017 in Washington, DC. The House voted to formally send their tax reform bill to a joint conference committee with the Senate, where they will try to merge the two bills. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Jordan criticizes DOJ for seizing NYT reporter's materials in leak case

The Justice Department’s seizure of online materials from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins is “not how the First Amendment operates,” Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan said Thursday, advocating for a federal shield law for reporters that he is cosponsoring in the House.

Watkins, a reporter at the Times who previously worked at POLITICO, McClatchy and BuzzFeed, had years of email and phone records seized without her knowledge by prosecutors in relation to a leak investigation into former Senate Intelligence Committee security director James Wolfe. Watkins and Wolfe were in a romantic relationship, but Watkins has said Wolfe never acted as a source for her during their relationship and Wolfe has denied giving classified intelligence to any reporter.


“Ali [Watkins] had all her material just grabbed,” Jordan (R-Ohio) told CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday. “It is not supposed to work that way. That is not how the First Amendment operates. And my concern is we’ve seen so many encroachments on our liberties from the government.”

That Watkins’ online materials were the subject of a government seizure without her knowledge marked a rare step for federal prosecutors, who generally seek information from journalists only as a last resort and then typically do so only after negotiating with the reporter about the scope of the request, so as to protect sources and newsgathering methods.

Jordan appeared Thursday morning with one of the shield law’s cosponsors, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), an odd-couple pairing given the former’s arch-conservative views and the latter’s position as a staunch liberal. Both expressed optimism that their legislation could pass the House, where similar bills have succeeded before by wide margins.

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The legislation backed by Jordan and Raskin would protect reporters from being compelled to testify and from having to reveal documents or sources, except in certain situations like the threat of terrorist attack, imminent death or bodily harm. The bill would extend protections to reporters at a federal level that already exist in many, but not all, states.

Jordan said his support for a federal shield law for reporters was based on the same concern he feels regarding allegations of misconduct and bias at the FBI and in the alleged targeting of conservative groups by the IRS in 2013.

“When Jamie came to me and said, look, let's shield reporters from having their First Amendment, freedom-of-the-press rights violated,’ I said ‘I'm all in.’ And then we have this situation which developed just two weeks ago with Ms. [Watkins] and the former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer,” Jordan said. “So this is why this is so important. We’re looking to have hearings on this. We’re looking to get this passed, and we’re picking up cosponsors each and every day.”



CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify Watkins’ and Wolfe’s statements on what information was received and used.