Freedom of the Press Foundation

Dear Friend of Press Freedom, I’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to The Classifieds. Read on to learn about the week’s top secrecy news. Trump administration officials didn’t learn their lesson from Signalgate. Instead, they continued to use the auto-delete function of the encrypted messaging app, Signal, despite the fact that doing so blatantly violates federal recordkeeping rules.

Dear Friend of Press Freedom: Journalist Katie Phang recently won a major victory in her lawsuit seeking to force the government to follow the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Her message to other independent journalists who want to fight government secrecy? “Our case is proof that you can do this.” Read on for more on how you can help defend press freedom this week. When Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act with broad bipartisan support, the Justice Department was given until Dec.

The Digital Security Digest, by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), is a weekly newsletter with security tips that keep you, your sources, and your devices safe. If someone shared this newsletter with you, please subscribe here. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, is the largest messaging app in the world to offer end-to-end encryption by default. But it has a meaningful privacy trade-off: You have to use your phone number to communicate with others on the app.

Dear Friend of Press Freedom, I’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to The Classifieds. Read on to learn about the week’s top secrecy news. A federal judge has shut down the Trump administration’s attempts to eviscerate privacy protections by allowing states to check a benefits verification database to confirm voter eligibility.

Dear Friend of Press Freedom: A Texas man was sentenced to decades in prison for transporting political publications. We break down what his case means for press freedom. Plus, more on Brendan Carr’s latest attack on the media and journalist Catherine Herridge’s fight to protect her confidential sources. We’ve often written about the bipartisan trend of criminalizing mere possession or transporting of information. This week it became more real than ever.

Tell the FCC to stop retaliating against ABC After James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate primary in Texas, appeared on ‚ÄėThe View,‚Äô the Brendan Carr-led FCC told ABC it had to prove that its daytime talk show qualifies for an exemption to the FCC‚Äôs ‚Äėequal time‚Äô rule. Without that exemption, ‚ÄėThe View‚Äô would be obligated to give equal time to all candidates for the same public office.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New York, June 24, 2026 — A D.C. appeals court declined yesterday to pause an $800-per-day fine against investigative reporter Catherine Herridge for refusing to identify her confidential sources in response to a civil subpoena. Herridge was held in contempt of court in 2024 for refusing to divulge sources for her reporting at Fox News on an investigation of a scientist and university president with alleged ties to the Chinese military.

The Digital Security Digest, by Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), is a weekly newsletter with security tips that keep you, your sources, and your devices safe. If someone shared this newsletter with you, please subscribe here. Last week, the Department of Justice announced an indictment targeting 15 people associated with Direct Action Minnesota, a coalition of protest groups.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New York, June 23, 2026 — Texas artist Daniel “Des” Sanchez Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today for transporting a box of zines, or political pamphlets. The prosecution claimed Sanchez moved the zines so they wouldn’t incriminate his wife, who attended a protest outside the Prairieland immigration detention center near Dallas, where a police officer was wounded by gunfire.