Paul Bass Photo
Klau at WNHH.
When President Donald Trump called journalists “the enemy of the people,” Dan Klau, a leading Connecticut First Amendment and open-government lawyer, took notice.
“I have to admit to being very scared when I heard that. Everybody understands that this president engages in hyperbole. But if you look at his track record since his election and particularly since the inauguration, his attitude toward the press has escalated,” he said.
Klau made his observation in an interview Tuesday on WNHH radio’s “Legal Eagle” program.
Klau said Trump’s response to the press is one “usually associated with autocratic leaders, not leaders of a democracy. So I was very troubled by that remark, particularly as it followed other incidents, including berating FBI officials as ‘leakers’ endangering the nation.”
Trump’s White House has promised to punish leakers. Klau said there were two ways to deal with leakers. One way is to identify the leaker. “President Obama was very aggressive about going after leakers.” The second way is to go after the journalists who receive the leaks. “It would not surprise me if this Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions would go after journalists,” Klau predicted.
But Klau observed, “Like it or not leaks are a way that the press makes sure the government is staying honest. We need leakers.” Above all, the press must “do its job,” he said.
When it comes to leaks, the Legal Eagle asked Klau to compare Trump the candidate with Trump the president.
Klau observed that “Mr. Trump was the leading proponent of the ridiculous notion that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States. He pushed it over and over, explaining that ‘a very highly placed, reliable source has told me that there are questions about his birth certificate.’ All made up. At a debate he would say ‘I love WikiLeaks.’ He has now done a complete 180 degree turn, and that is very telling.”
To listen to the full interview, which covered a range of legal topics, click on or download the above audio file.
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Fear Not Notes:
We are not well served by a large segment of the press. They need a journalism 101 course because what we have is pretty bad.