Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

7. Intelligence Community · Major

Rescind Attorney General Garland's guidance limiting leak investigations

Done

214 7. Intelligence Community

“In addition, the Department of Justice should use all of the tools at its disposal to investigate leaks and should rescind damaging guidance by Attorney General Merrick Garland that limits investigators’ ability to identify records of unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the media.”

What has happened

  1. Done

    DOJ published a final rule rescinding the 2022 (Garland) amendments to 28 CFR 50.10 and restoring a modified version of the 2014 news-media records policy, effective on publication; the rule says the 2022 policy 'undermin[ed] the Department's ability to safeguard classified' information. Attorney General Bondi's memorandum announcing the rescission is dated 2025-04-25.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The Bondi memorandum of 2025-04-25 (“Updated Policy Regarding Obtaining Information From, or Records of, Members of the News Media”) is reported by CNN and CBS (off-allowlist) and by law-firm alerts (leads). The justice.gov copy was not located (https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1398021/dl returned an HTML page, not the memo). The Federal Register rule is the Primary record and dates the change.
  • done on the rescission; the Quote’s first clause (“use all of the tools at its disposal to investigate leaks”) is a posture, not tracked.
Action
rescind
Object
Attorney General Merrick Garland's news media records guidance
ID
564