Judge spars with Justice Department over media protections

Our government needs to be accountable to its citizens
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A federal magistrate judge is challenging the Justice Department’s refusal to detail how it dealt with First Amendment and free press concerns before seeking to bring Capitol-riot-related criminal charges against Owen Shroyer, a Texas man who hosts a TV program on the right-wing, conspiracy-oriented Infowars website.
Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui granted the government’s request for an arrest warrant against Shroyer on several misdemeanor charges relating to entering a restricted area at the Capitol on Jan. 6. During a telephone conference, Faruqui asked prosecutors whether the Justice Department considered Shroyer a member of the media and whether prosecutors complied with DOJ regulations about investigations impacting members of the press. The judge became troubled when prosecutors insisted they had complied, but declined to say how or to put their compliance on the official court record.

Well considering the court has no enforcement agency, the DOJ has no incentive to listen to the court and can just exile the judge since the judge can be ignored if the agency chooses to mutiny against the court..