Jeff Sessions Won’t Say If WikiLeaks Charges Open Up News Organizations to Prosecution

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AG Jeff Sessions Holds A Meeting On Transnational Organized Crime
Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks about organized gang violence at the Department of Justice, April 18, 2016 in Washington, D.C.Mark Wilson—Getty Images
By Tessa Berenson Rogers

Attorney General Jeff Sessions declined to comment Friday when asked whether prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would also open up news organizations to prosecution.

“That’s speculative and I’m not able to comment on that,” Sessions told CNN when asked specifically whether places like CNN or the New York Times would be vulnerable to prosecution.

Edward Snowden, a former intelligence agency contractor who leaked classified documents to expose the NSA’s surveillance practices, weighed in Friday with similar concerns. He tweeted that prosecuting WikiLeaks means the Trump Administration can also prosecute “other publishers”:

Sessions said at a news conference Thursday that arresting WikiLeaks founder Assange is a “priority,” CNN reports. Assange is currently being harbored in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

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Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com