Trump, Noem suggest CNN may be prosecuted for reporting on ICE raids, Iran strikes

President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that CNN employees may be prosecuted for reporting on recent airstrikes on Iran and on an app that allows people to track immigration enforcement actions.

“We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that. Because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations,” Noem said during a tour of the “Alligator Alcatraz” deportation camp in the Everglades.

“And we’re going to ask them to go after them, to prosecute them … because what they’re doing is illegal,” she said.

Trump interjected: “They may be prosecuted also for false reports on the attacks on Iran … They may be very well prosecuted for that.”

It’s unclear what crimes CNN journalists allegedly committed with the reporting.

A CNN spokesperson dismissed the notion of prosecution for the immigration coverage but did not specifically address the Iran strikes.

“This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it,” the network rep said. “There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.”

The outlet’s Monday article on the “ICEBlock” app describes how users can relay sightings of immigration officials – akin to better-known apps that allow users to report locations of speed traps and other police tactics.

News outlets are allowed to report on criminal activities and it’s unclear under what legal theory Noem is seeking a prosecution.

Federal officials have arrested some people for physically obstructing immigration officials, but the ICEBlock app remains available for free on the Apple App Store. 

Trump, meanwhile, has fumed at CNN over its reporting on a “top secret” preliminary assessment of airstrike damage at three Iranian nuclear sites that he says were “obliterated.”

Journalists can legally report on classified documents, but soliciting the material or instructing sources on how to retrieve it has opened the door to federal investigation and punishment.

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange was indicted in 2019 for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion by encouraging Army intelligence specialist Chelsea Manning to retrieve documents on the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Assange also faced charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 for allegedly conspiring to obtain and disclose national defense information, which he published in bulk with minimal redactions. He took a plea deal last year that let him return to Australia after extensive pre-trial detention in the UK.

Any attempt to prosecute reporters would command massive attention and First Amendment litigation.

Katherine Jacobsen, the US, Canada and Caribbean program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Trump and Noem “should remember that journalists have First Amendment protections, enshrined in the Constitution, and should not face legal action in retaliation for their reporting on ICE raids, Iran strikes or any other news event.”

Among recent administrations, the Obama Justice Department has had one of the toughest reputations for its handling of the press and leaks.

The FBI seized the emails and phone logs of then-Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2010 – writing in a search warrant affidavit that he was a possible “co-conspirator” with his source when reporting on a planned nuclear test by North Korea.

James Risen, then of the New York Times, waged a seven-year legal struggle ending in 2015 over his refusal to identify who told him about a bungled CIA plot to undermine Iran’s nuclear program.