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President Donald Trump’s Justice Department removed protections for journalists in investigations into leaks, allowing the government greater power to demand information.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a memo circulated Friday that she will rescind policies established by the Biden administration preventing the Justice Department from seeking records or compelling testimony from journalists in order to investigate leaks. The memo was published by Politico.

Bondi claimed that the Biden administration “abused” media protections put in place by Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s attorney general that largely barred federal...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth returned to his former employer Fox News on Tuesday to defend his tenure amid new revelations that he shared military plans on a Signal group chat and a bombshell op-ed from a former spokesperson who described the Pentagon atmosphere as the “month from hell.”

“Disgruntled former employees are peddling things to try to save their ass, and ultimately, that is not going to work,” Hegseth told Brian Kilmeade on Fox & Friends.

Hegseth, the former host of Fox & Friends Weekend, accused a group of his senior staffers of leaks. The staffers — Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll — were dismissed Friday.

Hegseth suggested that they were responsible for leaking to the press, after the New York Times reported that the Defense Secretary shared attack details in another Signal chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer. That followed the bombshell report that the editor of The Atlantic,...

Updated with Trump comment: Donald Trump said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “doing a great job,” even amid a new bombshell report and a scathing op-ed from a former top Pentagon spokesperson.

“Ask the Houthis how he’s doing,” Trump told reporters today, referring to the U.S. strikes on rebels in Yemen. He blamed the latest reports on “fake news” and “disgruntled employees.”

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump “stands strongly” behind Hegseth.

“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and against the monumental change you are trying to implement,” Leavitt said Monday on Fox & Friends.

Hegseth, appearing at the White House Easter Egg Roll, himself said, “What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and a bunch of hit pieces come out.” He then went into an extended rant about the media, pointing at reporters and calling them “full of hoax-sters.