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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has effectively killed a House-passed bipartisan press shield bill after Senate Democrats sat on it and President Biden declined to take a stand for nearly a year as it languished.
“REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday afternoon, along with a video clip from PBS of an advocate arguing that it could benefit his critics once he returns to office.
Trump’s opposition all but guarantees it cannot clear the narrowly divided Senate due to the 60-vote threshold for ending debate on the bill, which passed the Republican-held House by a voice vote in January.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told The Post in March that he supports the bill that would create federal protections for reporters and their records during criminal investigations, but the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), never held a vote.
Biden, meanwhile, did not take a stance on the legislation, which gained relatively little coverage from news outlets before Trump’s victory in the Nov. 4 election.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say whether Biden would sign the bill at an April press conference when asked by The Post about it.
“As it relates to this particular legislation, I haven’t reviewed it. Would have to talk to our Office of Leg Affairs on that particular legislation,” she said — despite the question being provided to her staff three days ahead of the briefing to allow time for an answer.
Some supporters of the press shield bill tried to revive its fortunes among Senate Democrats by arguing that Trump, 78, could threaten journalistic independence when he retakes the White House on Jan. 20.
It’s unclear if any of the bill’s opponents also spoke with Trump about it, though proponents suspect that he may have conversed with Republican critics in the Senate. Trump is known for sometimes vacillating on specific policies in response to advocacy from his supporters, who oftentimes disagree, as is the case with the legislation, that sailed through the House, which is controlled by Republican Trump allies.
The nine-page bill, whose name is an acronym for Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying, is sponsored by Reps. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and has notable conservative support, with cosponsors including Reps. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Russell Fry (R-SC), Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) and Barry Moore (R-Ala.).
The PRESS Act would bar federal officials from forcing journalists or their service providers to turn over evidence in cases such as leak investigations — with exceptions if the reporter is suspected of a crime or suspected of working as a foreign agent or for a terrorist organization.
A Senate Democratic source told The Post that Trump — who regularly trashes certain reporters as the “enemy of the people” and “fake news” — might move legally against adversarial journalists during his second term, after using the press mostly as a rhetorical foil during his first.
“It’s not hyperbole to admit that Trump does have an enemies list and if you’re a journalist, you’re wearing a Scarlet Letter,” the Democrat claimed.
“The PRESS Act legislation has one Trump Tower-sized problem in the Senate: Donald.”
Some of the best-known recent run-ins between the press and federal prosecutors occurred during then-President Barack Obama’s administration.
In 2010, then-Fox News reporter James Rosen had his emails and phone logs seized by the FBI, which described him in a search warrant affidavit as a possible “co-conspirator” with his source when reporting on a planned nuclear test by North Korea.
Reporter James Risen, formerly of the New York Times, waged a seven-year legal struggle ending in 2015 over his refusal to say who told him about a bungled CIA plot to undermine Iran’s nuclear program.
Some instances of source-protection fights involve civil lawsuits, including over defamation claims brought under state laws, which the proposed federal law would not cover.
Veteran journalist Catherine Herridge, formerly of CBS News and Fox News, was held in civil contempt by DC US District Judge Christopher Cooper in February for refusing to identify who told her about an FBI investigation into a Chinese American scientist, who is seeking the information in a deposition as part of a lawsuit against the Justice Department.
Cooper fined Herridge $800 per day for not naming her source.
The journalist is appealing the fine and could face other consequences including jail time if she loses.
Kiley, the lead Republican House sponsor, told The Post that Trump’s opposition puts supporters in a position of having to convince the incoming president and Senate GOP leaders of its merits.
“Based on the feedback we’ve received from senators and President Trump, it’s clear we have work to do to achieve consensus on this issue,” Kiley told The Post. “I’m looking forward to working with the new administration on a great many areas of common ground as we begin a new era of American prosperity.”
