October 18, 2017 at 3:55 p.m.
| Updated October 18, 2017 at 3:56 p.m.
by
Associated Press
FILE- In this Oct. 12, 2017, file photo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks at the Executive Office for Immigration Review in Falls Church, Va. The Justice Department is sending a federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with killing a transgender teenager last year. LGBT advocates have long been skeptical of Sessions' pledge to prosecute acts of violence against transgender people. But the move, outlined in recently filed court papers, is a sign he intends to do so. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions is refusing to pledge that he won't seek to jail journalists for doing their jobs.
Under questioning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, Sessions said he could not make that "blanket" commitment.
His position is a reversal of the stance taken by attorneys general in the Obama administration, who had said they would not seek to imprison members of the news media who were doing their jobs.
The Trump administration has announced an aggressive crackdown on leaks of national security information to journalists.
