CNN reported last week that the Trump administration's Justice Department secretly obtained phone and email records of its Pentagon correspondent, just two weeks after The Washington Post reported that three of its reporters' phone records had been similarly compromised. One likely goal was to uncover what sources the reporters were using in their stories about then-President Donald Trump.

Trump never hid his contempt for the free press, but these are indications that he went far beyond name-calling in his attempt to corral press freedoms. Now that the Justice Department answers to the Biden administration, it should conduct a thorough and transparent review of any First Amendment abuses by its predecessor.

America's news media is far from perfect, but from the very beginning it's been an integral component to the nation's system of democracy in that it keeps the rest of the system honest. This is why the Framers enshrined press freedom before most other guarantees in the Bill of Rights. Trump was a uniquely dangerous president for his willingness to undermine public trust in core norms of that system when he felt it benefited him personally. Among the norms he sought to kneecap was the watchdog function of the press. History will rank this among the worst of Trump's many offenses.

When it came to the free press, Trump took his cue not from the Framers but from some of history's worst despots. His designation of the news media as "the enemy of the people" borrowed a phrase that Stalin applied to dissidents and that Hitler applied to the Jews — a phrase, in other words, that authoritarians use against those they wish to discredit and dehumanize in order to consolidate their own power.

Trump's almost pathological aversion to being criticized about anything at any level made him especially determined to stop the presses. Only now is America learning just how far he was willing to go for that goal.

The Washington Post reported in early May that three Post reporters had received letters from Biden's Justice Department informing them that Trump's Justice Department "received toll records associated with the following telephone numbers" in mid-2017. Then, last week, CNN reported that its Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, had received a similar communication telling her the Justice Department had obtained phone and email records for mid-2017 — including her home phone and personal email accounts.

In both cases, the current Justice Department hasn't fully explained what its predecessor was doing. Trump had one of the leakiest White Houses in history, and his obsession with uncovering and punishing leakers was legendary though not unique. In fact, Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, also vigorously pursued leakers and the journalists they collaborated with.

That's not a valid reason to invade the professional and personal information of journalists who are merely doing their jobs. Biden should open the books on this whole shady enterprise, now.

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