DoJ suggested OANN should call FBI about NPR’s tipline, emails show

Enlarge / The most salacious tips obviously also have the most dramatic backlighting. (credit: Andrew Brookes | Getty Images)

A representative from the Department of Justice suggested in 2018 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation should have a look into NPR's use of a secure, encrypted tipline, newly publicized emails reveal.

Reporter Jason Leopold obtained an email exchange from DOJ officials from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and shared them on Twitter. The email thread begins with an April 2018 message from Neil McCabe, who was at the time a reporter at One America News Network (OANN), a far-right cable news channel best known for boosting and spreading conspiracy theories. McCabe was writing to Lauren Ehrsam Gorey, who was then a spokesperson in the DoJ's Office of Public Affairs (i.e., the department's communications and public relations division).

"Can you find out if DOJ is cool with NPR running a Tor-enabled tip email?" McCabe wrote, adding a link to NPR's instructions for sending in confidential tips.

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