Special Investigations

Press Freedom Defense Fund

Trump Uses the Courts to Intimidate Critics. The Media Must Fight Back.

Federal agencies are using investigations to stifle speech and chill the questioning of those in power.

The Trump administration is embracing an intimidation strategy to silence critical media coverage. Here’s how it works: A federal agency launches a pretextual investigation into a perceived enemy, keeps the investigation open to coerce compliance, and resists any effort to have a court review the lawfulness of the agency’s actions.

There’s no better example than the Federal Trade Commission’s retaliatory investigation of Media Matters for America for its critical coverage of one of the Trump administration’s most powerful allies.

Such investigations aim stifle speech and chill the questioning of those in power. They’re an acute danger to nonprofit organizations that Americans rely on for critical information. That’s why 17 nonprofit organizations, led by The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The brief, authored by Albert Sellars LLP, asks the appellate court to uphold a preliminary injunction to protect Media Matters’ speech rights.

Media Matters is a media watchdog. In 2023, it published an article detailing how advertising from companies like Apple and IBM appeared next to pro-Nazi and other antisemitic content on X. The platform’s owner, Elon Musk, responded with what he called a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against Media Matters, alleging the nonprofit systematically manipulated X to defame his company.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called on “conservative state Attorneys General” to investigate; Missouri and Texas did just that. Then the FTC followed suit seeking details concerning Media Matters’ reporting, communications with third parties, and six years of its financial information, potentially including donors.

The FTC’s intent was clear. Chair Andrew Ferguson vowed to target “the radical left” and “progressives.” The District of Columbia federal district court concluded that the FTC’s investigation was ““a straightforward First Amendment violation.”

This tactic of retaliatory investigation has been mirrored by other federal agencies, particularly the Department of Justice as it targets hospitals providing gender-affirming care, and the Federal Communications Commission as its tries to quiet media organizations.

And that’s just one way the Trump administration attacks speech rights.

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For instance, the Justice Department is trying to use the FACE Act – legislation designed to protect abortion clinics and patents from violent intimidation — to stifle newsgathering. Pointing to a provision........

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