An urgent message from the chief legal officer at The Intercept
Posted: 23rd March 2026
This is David Bralow, chief legal officer at The Intercept. I’m writing to alert you to a chilling new threat to free speech and nonprofit journalism.
Earlier this week, we learned that the FBI and IRS are about to launch a joint initiative aimed at prosecuting nonprofit organizations for alleged links to “domestic terrorism.”
The effort stems from a Trump executive order stating that groups and individuals can be investigated based solely on their ideological beliefs, such as “opposition to immigration enforcement,” “radical gender ideology,” and “anti-capitalism.”
Now, the marching orders have gone out to line prosecutors to “go big and go loud.”
According to a New York Times report, a top Justice Department official leading the effort harangued federal prosecutors on a recent conference call for not doing enough “to attack the funding of these groups.” The official then specifically cited the arrest of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in Minneapolis as examples of the kinds of cases U.S. attorneys should be making.
This is what censorship looks like — and given The Intercept’s track record of adversarial reporting, we must be prepared in the event that the government retaliates against us.
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I’ve been practicing First Amendment law for more than three decades, and in all that time, I’ve never seen an administration attack free speech and freedom of the press quite like this.
Perhaps most concerning is that the Justice Department doesn’t even have to bring successful prosecutions for this kind of censorship to be effective.
The threat alone is enough to silence criticism.
Meanwhile, the FCC is threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of stations that challenge the administration’s line on the Iran war, and Trump himself floated the idea of charging journalists with treason.
We’ve been able to hold our ground while many other news outlets have backed down for one simple reason: Our support comes from you, our readers.
We have no corporate owner lobbying Trump for fat government contracts. We have no website advertisers to threaten or broadcast license to revoke.
As long as you continue to stand with us, we’ll never shy away from telling the truth.
Thank you,
David Bralow
Chief Legal Officer