From Tommy Christopher:
Trump has overseen a drop in America’s standing as a safe place for a free press. And his Justice Department has gone so far as to remove a section on the “need for a free press” from its manual.
On Sunday, BuzzFeed reported that it has been tracking changes to the DOJ’s “US Attorneys’ Manual,” after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ordered a review of the document. BuzzFeed noted the removal of an entire subsection entitled “Need for Free Press and Public Trial.”
Prior to its removal, that section said that “careful weight must be given in each case to the constitutional requirements of a free press and public trials as well as the right of the people in a constitutional democracy to have access to information about the conduct of law enforcement officers, prosecutors and courts, consistent with the individual rights of the accused.”