Border Patrol Official: Agents Who Talk To Reporters May Be Prosecuted

Kevin Gosztola of FDL:

CBP Agents Learn to STFU

In an email the Associated Press obtained,  an assistant chief patrol agent warns thousands of Border Patrol agents if they talk to journalists about the crisis with immigrant children crossing the US-Mexico border they may be charged with committing a crime.

Eligio “Lee” Pena warned “more than 3,000 Border Patrol agents that journalists looking for information about what Obama has described as a humanitarian crisis are likely to ask for information,” according to the AP.

Pena’s email also suggested that reporters “may try to disguise themselves” to get agents to provide information. “Agents should not speak to reporters, on or off duty, without advanced permission and warned that anyone who does could be charged with a crime or disciplined administratively.”

...

Bolds mine. I almost titled this post "Executive control freak orders suppression of all conversations between government officials and reporters." But that's not really true, is it? It's really only conversations with Executive branch agents, not the entire government, that are being squelched. Still, it's troubling beyond mere annoyance that the Obama administration feels a compulsion to do this heavy-handed silencing of its Customs‑Border Patrol agents.

Someone in comments to Gosztola's post remarked that Obama's real similarity is not to GeeDubya Bush, but rather to Richard Nixon. Yep!