Story highlights Litman and Knobler: Trump administration's crackdown on leakers is an autocratic-style campaign that puts all of us at risk

Leaks are often the only way the public can learn about wrongdoing in the White House, they write

Harry Litman, is the former United States attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, and currently Of Counsel at Constantine Cannon. He worked on John Kerry's and Hillary Clinton's campaigns for president. Molly Knobler is an associate at Constantine Cannon in Washington. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.

(CNN) Attorney general Jeff Sessions' recent declaration that "this culture of leaking must stop" is one of the most prominent instances of the Trump administration's obsessive campaign against leakers and whistleblowers.

Kowtowing to the President, who as part of his public campaign of humiliation against Sessions had tweeted that his attorney general had taken a "VERY weak position on . . Intel leakers," Sessions last week unveiled a Justice Department initiative designed to prioritize and streamline the prosecution of leakers.

Harry Litman

Molly Knobler

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was asked on "Fox News Sunday" about Sessions' announcement and told Chris Wallace that the Trump administration intends to review the current limitations on the Justice Department's ability to subpoena reporters for their sources and to prosecute "anybody who breaks the law," including White House officials and members of Congress, if the circumstances warrant prosecution.

As attorneys for whistleblowers, who often come forward with what others consider confidential information that reveals serious legal violations or fraud against the government, we recognize that many people view whistleblowers with ambivalence or even hostility. Whistleblowers evoke a sense of the childhood tattletale, the kid with right on his side who is friendless in the schoolyard. However, whistleblowers make essential contributions to law enforcement and other important governmental policies.

No one would quarrel with the Trump administration's efforts to clamp down on genuine national-security leaks. But the Trump administration has lumped together this traditional law enforcement function with virulent attacks on "leakers" as part of an autocratic campaign to govern in secrecy -- and that puts all of us at risk.