Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused Wednesday to pledge he won't try to jail journalists for doing their jobs.
Under questioning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sessions said he couldn't guarantee that "blanket commitment."
"But I will say this, we have not taken any aggressive action against the media at this point," Sessions told Klobuchar," The Hill reported.
"But we have matters that involve the most serious national security issues that put our country at risk and we will utilize the authorities that we have legally and constitutionally if we have to."
The Trump administration has announced an aggressive crackdown on leaks of national security information to journalists.
"We always try to find an alternative way, as you probably know, Sen. Klobuchar, to directly confronting media person, but that's not a total blanket protection," Sessions added, the Hill reported.
Sessions's position is a reversal of the stance taken by attorneys general in the Obama administration, who had said they would not seek to imprison members of the news media who were doing their jobs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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