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Oversight
Why Are Democrats Helping Trump Crack Down on Press Freedom?
Democrats are helping the CIA expand secrecy laws — and potentially prosecute reporters
President Donald Trump’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is attempting to vastly expand a controversial secrecy law that would shield it from accountability and even leave journalists vulnerable to prosecution for publishing the names of agents who engaged in illegal torture. And some Democrats appear totally on board.
Every year, Congress has to pass the Intelligence Authorization Act, which funds the intelligence agencies for the following fiscal year. (The House is expected to vote on its version as early as next week.) The CIA successfully pushed for a provision that would expand a little known law called the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA).
Currently, the IIPA provides restrictions on disclosing the names of covert CIA officers who have served overseas sometime in the past five years. It is already controversial. When it passed in 1982, then-Senator Joe Biden warned that it could provide the government with ammunition to indict journalists who have reported on leaked information.
But now, the CIA wants to broaden its reach even further. As noted this week by…
