Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, clarified the department’s position two days after he declined to answer the question at a news conference.
WASHINGTON — Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, said on Sunday that the Justice Department was not pursuing reporters as part of its growing number of leak investigations, just two days after he and other department officials had appeared to signal a harsher line toward journalists.
“We don’ t prosecute journalists for doing their jobs, ” Mr. Rosenstein said on “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s not our goal here.”
He had declined to answer such a question on Friday, telling reporters who asked whether the department would prosecute reporters that he would not “comment on any hypotheticals.”
Mr. Rosenstein’s appearance on Fox came two days after administration officials heralded a new and stiffer posture on government leaks, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions telling reporters that leak investigations had tripled under the Trump administration.
“We will not allow rogue anonymous sources with security clearances to sell out our country any longer, ” Mr. Sessions said at a news conference at the department on Friday. He said he had opened a review of department rules governing when investigators may issue subpoenas related to the news media on leaks.
On Sunday, Mr. Rosenstein sought to clarify Mr. Sessions’s position.
“The attorney general has been very clear that we’ re after the leakers, not the journalist, ” Mr. Rosenstein said on Fox. “We’ re after the people who are committing crimes.”
But Mr. Rosenstein also called concerns over press freedom an “overreaction” and reiterated a statement Mr. Sessions made on Friday, when the attorney general said reporters could not expect “unlimited” leeway in handling leaked material.
“They cannot place lives at risk with impunity, ” Mr. Sessions said on Friday.
The briefing on Friday ended with Mr. Sessions and Mr. Rosenstein ignoring shouted questions about whether they would include members of the news media in their leak investigations. Mr. Rosenstein’s statement that he would not comment on “hypotheticals” came in a later briefing on Friday.
On Sunday, Mr. Rosenstein left open the possibility that reporters could carry some legal responsibility for information published, but said the department had not revised any policy on reporters.
“Generally speaking, reporters who publish information are not committing a crime. But there might be a circumstance where they do, ” Mr. Rosenstein said on Fox. “I haven’ t seen any of those today, but I wouldn’ t rule it out in the event that there were a case where a reporter was purposely violating the law.”
For months, the White House, battling persistent leaks, had been pushing the Justice Department to crack down. After a series of posts on Twitter last month ridiculing Mr. Sessions, President Trump tweeted his approval of the increase in leak investigations.
“After many years of LEAKS going on in Washington, it is great to see the A. G. taking action!” Mr. Trump wrote on Saturday.
The anxiety over leaks has partly been a reaction to the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel examining Russian meddling in last year’s election. News reports about the special counsel have drawn the ire of White House staff members, and on Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, the president’s counselor, called news of grand-jury-issued subpoenas related to the investigation a “leak.”
“These are supposed to be done in secret, ” Ms. Conway said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And yet that leaked out, as so many things do that are harmful to our security interest.”
Mr. Rosenstein also addressed that investigation on Sunday, saying that Mr. Mueller needed his approval to further the inquiry’s reach.
“If he finds evidence of a crime that’s within the scope of what Director Mueller and I have agreed is the appropriate scope of the investigation, then he can” pursue it, Mr. Rosenstein said on Fox. “If it’s something that’s outside that scope, he needs to come to the acting attorney general — at this time, me — for a permission to expand his investigation.”
