Investigations Into Trump, Hunter Biden, Matt Gaetz, Oath Keepers And Proud Boys Will Keep Reporters Busy Into The New Year
Program Date: Sept. 12, 2022

5 takeaways:

To cover an agency that doesn’t leak, read DOJ’s court filings. Journalists covering the Department of Justice have two big problems: DOJ isn’t leaking. And the best potential sources would face jail if they talked about the ongoing investigations into former president Donald Trump. [Transcript | Video]

Two veterans on the DOJ beat advised NPF’s Paul Miller fellows how they might break into one of Washington’s toughest beats on an explosive story. First, read every court document the agency files, advised NPR National Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson and CNN’s Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez.

Johnson suggested that when journalists have a sensitive question, they should start by making a list of everyone who might know the answer. If you don‘t know the names of those people, write down their title, then find the names and start asking questions.

“I show up everywhere someone I want to know is. … that includes finding out where they like to go to lunch, that includes if they’re giving remarks to a nonprofit association or getting an award in the evening,” she said. It also includes finding the people they’re close to. “Often you get more reporting from the outside than you would walking up in court to someone who can’t talk to you anyway and asking them bold and possibly ill-considered questions in public.”

Perez advised that journalists contact “formers,” officials from prior administrations, both Democrat and Republican, to give context from a distance.

The investigations into Trump and Jan. 6 will continue to generate big news. “The former president appears to be now under active criminal investigation in two different FBI probes, as well as two different state probes in Georgia and New York. So, none of us are going to get back to normal anytime soon,” Johnson said.

The Justice Department would normally have “a quiet period before an election” to avoid influence or the appearance of influence, Perez said, but not this year.

In addition to the investigation of allegedly highly classified documents found by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, other Trump associates’ houses have been searched and cellphones seized and are “very, very clearly under investigation,” Perez said.

Journalists should also keep an eye on the investigations of  Hunter Biden and Matt Gaetz.

Johnson noted that the Jan. 6 trials continue, including two of the most serious charges of seditious conspiracy against Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders expected in late September and December, respectively.

“The Justice Department always takes much longer than you think … they’re meticulous sometimes in an excruciating way for people who just want to get the show on the road. But they do wind up getting a lot of things done in that building and I think it’s going to keep us all very busy into next year, for sure,” she said.

Was Mar-a-Lago an FBI “raid” or a “search”? Language matters and it’s noticed by readers. Many newsrooms had conversations about which word to use in their coverage, even as “raid” ranked higher for SEO.

“If you are in the former president’s camp, you want to call it a ‘raid,’ because you want to portray these thugs who came in with guns blazing and rifled through Melania’s closet,” Perez said. “If you read the subpoena, the FBI had the ability to go in like that if they wanted to. They had the authority to go in at 6:00 a.m., they didn’t, they went around 10:00 a.m. They did not show up with raid jackets. They showed up in suit ties and polos. This is as polite a ‘raid’ as I’ve ever seen the FBI carry out. … That’s one reason why I’ve called it a search because I think that’s the more accurate term.”

Journalists must contend with the politicization of the formerly nonpartisan. Perez and Johnson have both been covering Justice for roughly two decades, and note that the biggest change they have seen is how everything has become politicized, even antitrust investigations or anti-violent crimes efforts, which one would assume have broad agreement. Attorney General Merrick Garland may do the same thing as former AG William Barr, and people will react differently and vehemently depending on their political affiliation.

To understand “legalese,” talk to lawyers. You don’t need to be a legal expert to cover the DoJ. Johnson’s go-to phrase when she needs one of her legal sources to explain something is “I need you to help me issue spot X.” “That’s shorthand to say, ‘What are the legal issues here that are in play? And explain to me whether there are any cases that [relate],” Johnson said.

Perez also advised journalists to read the legal briefings in full.

“Every footnote is important. … they’re trying to draw your attention to a paragraph in the brief that comes from somewhere else,” Perez said. He also reads the legal briefing or opinion the footnotes point to. “It can tell you a lot about the litigation strategy that they’re pursuing. It can tell you a lot in this case [Mar-a-Lago], for instance, you can see that a lot of [Trump’s strategy] is basically about delaying. They’re just trying to run out the clock, which is a strategy that has worked for the former president.”

While DOJ under Garland has been notably silent, the court filings from both sides are making headlines.“The former president’s attempts to fight and delay the Mar-a-Lago investigation have resulted in an on-the-record disclosure of more damaging information against him than any other case that I can remember in the last few years, so the Justice Department is not doing that much leaking,” Johnson said. “All you need to do is stay up ‘til midnight, like Evan said, and read what they file in court.”


To support the Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship and other journalism training, donate here.

Carrie Johnson
National Justice Correspondent, NPR
Evan Perez
Senior Justice Correspondent, CNN
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Transcript
Covering the DOJ
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Resources
Resources for Mar-a-Lago and Investigating Trump

Capitol Breach Investigation Resource Page, the United States Attorney Office, U.S. Department of Justice

FBI Records: The Vault, the FBI’s FOIA library, containing 6,700 documents and other media

The Justice Beat Goes Into ‘Overdrive,’’ Carrie Johnson, Nieman Reports, August 2022

Organizational Flow Chart, U.S. Department of Justice

Op-ed: Challenging secrecy in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel,” Stephanie Krent and Larry Siems, Columbia Journalism Review, May 2022

Georgia’s big Trump election investigation, explained,” Ben Jacobs, Vox, August 2022

N.Y. Attorney General May Sue Trump After Rejecting Settlement Offer,” Ben Protess, Jonah E. Bromwich and William K. Rashbaum, The New York Times, September 2022

Glossary of Legal Terms in the United States, Law Soup

How NPR decided whose voices to include in stories on the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago,” Kelly McBride, NPR, September 2022

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