DOJ subpoenas Wall Street Journal reporters' records over Iran-war leaks after Trump hands acting AG Blanche stack of articles marked 'Treason'

The discrete event recorded here is the grand jury subpoena issuance to The Wall Street Journal for its reporters' records, publicly disclosed by the Journal on May 11, 2026 and reported by CNN on the same day. The subpoenas are tied to a February 23, 2026 WSJ story — published five days before the Iran war began on February 28, 2026 — that reported on Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and other Pentagon officials warning President Trump about the risks of an extended military campaign against Iran. A Dow Jones spokesperson said the subpoenas "represent an attack on constitutionally protected newsgathering" and that the company will "vigorously oppose" them.

According to CNN, citing officials familiar with the matter, Trump personally pushed the Justice Department to issue the subpoenas: he delivered the directive to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a White House meeting in the form of a stack of printed news articles topped by a sticky note reading "Treason" in Sharpie. One official told CNN that the DOJ's National Security Division was already preparing to examine some of the stories' sources, but Trump's stack "accelerated the effort." A source told CNN the investigation is aimed at identifying government employees who leaked information, not the reporters themselves. CNN further reported that other news outlets have also received DOJ subpoenas in recent months, with at least one outlet declining to confirm publicly. Acting AG Blanche has separately stated that the DOJ "will investigate if it means sending a subpoena to the reporter" when leaks of classified information are involved.

The underlying policy enabler is former Attorney General Pam Bondi's April 25, 2025 revision of DOJ media-investigation policy, which allowed federal investigators in certain cases to seek reporters' phone records, notes, and testimony via court orders, warrants, and subpoenas — reversing a Biden-era ban imposed after revelations that AG William Barr had secretly sought reporters' email records during Trump's first term. The publicly verified date of subpoena receipt is the May 11, 2026 disclosure; other reporting has suggested the WSJ received the subpoena on or about March 4, 2026, but that earlier date is not independently confirmed in the live primary sources available at archive time.