Trump admin loses fight to spy on random journalists' LinkedIn DMs

A federal appeals court ruled that the Justice Department cannot use an investigation into a suspected leak of top-secret military information to obtain a broad sweep of journalists’ LinkedIn communications. The government had sought 18 months of data from reporters who had some possible connection to journalists behind a report criticized by President Trump. The targeted reporters published more than 1,000 stories on varied subjects during that period, meaning the demand could expose communications with many confidential sources unrelated to the leak inquiry. LinkedIn also had been barred from revealing the request for a year, leaving affected journalists unaware that their records were being sought.

The unanimous panel rejected LinkedIn’s request to cancel the order outright but sent the matter back to a lower court to substantially narrow it. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said the lower court wrongly treated the request as acceptable because LinkedIn could technically compile the records, without properly weighing the burden and threat to First Amendment rights. The court stressed that protecting national security and safeguarding press freedom can both be addressed, and warned that collecting reporters’ records wholesale could deter sources and harm public debate. It also directed the government to explain why it opposed LinkedIn’s proposal to notify one lawyer for the outlet under investigation. Microsoft and press-freedom advocates welcomed the decision, calling confidential sources essential to investigative journalism and insisting government demands for such data require meaningful judicial scrutiny.