司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)在周一发布的一份备忘录中表示，司法部将不再对以新闻采集身份行事的记者适用“强制性法律程序”，但他不排除对记者完全使用法律程序，只是在“有限的情况下”
备忘录解释说，法律程序包括传票、逮捕令和法院命令。
加兰说，这项禁令不适用于因新闻采集以外的活动而受到刑事调查的记者，如内幕交易和破门而入获取新闻内容。
加兰说，在“有限的情况下”，DOJ必须使用法律程序来记录新闻媒体的成员，这将得到副总检察长的批准，并在程序启动前咨询他或她。
加兰写道:“当媒体成员在新闻收集过程中只拥有或发布政府信息，包括机密信息时，禁令确实适用。“然而，这并不影响该部门利用强制性法律程序从非法披露政府信息的政府雇员那里获取信息或记录的传统能力。”
当一个实体或个人与外国恐怖主义团体或外国势力代理人接触，或存在“严重身体伤害”或迫在眉睫的死亡风险时，禁止使用法律程序也不适用。
总检察长还责成副总检察长审查、制定和编纂该政策，并将审查已经记录在案的内容。
这份备忘录之所以出现，是因为主要媒体记者有特朗普司法部传唤的与俄罗斯调查有关的报道的记录。
这三家媒体机构在今年夏天早些时候会见了司法部长。
DOJ will no longer subpoena reporters engaged in newsgathering
The Justice Department will no longer apply the "compulsory legal process" to journalists acting in their capacity of news gathering, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a memo released on Monday, but he did not rule out using the legal process completely on reporters, only in "limited circumstances."
That legal process consists of subpoenas, warrants and court orders, the memo explains.
Garland said that the prohibition will not apply to reporters who are under criminal investigation for activities outside of newsgathering, such as insider trading and breaking and entering to obtain something for a story.
Garland said that in the "limited circumstance" in which DOJ has to use the legal process for records on a member of the news media, it will be approved by the deputy attorney general, and that he or she will be consulted before the process is initiated.
"The prohibition does apply when a member of the media, has in the course of news gathering, only possessed or published government information, including classified information," Garland writes. "This does not however affect the Department’s traditional ability to use the compulsory legal process to obtain information from or records of, for example, a government employee who has unlawfully disclosed government information.”
The prohibition on using the legal process also does not apply when an entity or individual comes in contact with a foreign terrorist group or agent of a foreign power, or when there is "serious bodily harm" or an imminent risk of death.
The attorney general is also tasking the deputy attorney general with reviewing, developing and codifying the policy and will examine what is already on the books.
The memo came about because major media outlets reporters had records subpoenaed by the Trump Justice Department on stories relating to the Russia investigation.
Those three media outlets met with the attorney general earlier this summer.
