Justice Dept. Seizes New York Times Reporter’s Email and Phone Records

In a June 7, 2018 New York Times article we read: "A former Senate Intelligence Committee aide was arrested on Thursday in an investigation of classified information leaks where prosecutors also secretly seized years’ worth of a New York Times reporter’s phone and email records.

The former aide, James A. Wolfe, 57, was charged with lying repeatedly to investigators about his contacts with three reporters. According to the authorities, Mr. Wolfe made false statements to the F.B.I. about providing two of them with sensitive information related to the committee’s work. He denied to investigators that he ever gave classified material to journalists.

Court documents describe Mr. Wolfe’s communications with four reporters, using encrypted messaging applications.

News media advocates consider the idea of mining a journalist’s records for sources to be an intrusion on First Amendment freedoms, and prosecutors acknowledge it is one of the most delicate steps the Justice Department can take. “Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, and communications between journalists and their sources demand protection,” said Eileen Murphy, a Times spokeswoman.

The Justice Department had years of customer records and subscriber information from telecommunications companies, including Google and Verizon, for two email accounts and a phone number of the New York Times reporter. Investigators did not obtain the content of the messages themselves."
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A major take away from this article is that while encryption will protect the content of your messages, it does not prevent others from seeing connections between the parties to the communication.

For communication to be secure you must protect both the content of your messages using encryption and the fact that you are communication with a specific person (i.e. a reporter) by using systems like Secure Drop or even Alt.Anonymous.Messages.