The thing about such authoritarians is that they are easy to dupe. A journalist could have a hoot, running bogus stories about anonymous government leakers, then keep a set of phony notes that implicate administration higher ups.
Imagine how quick the DHS would be to investigate if the leakers were people like Van Jones, Bill Ayers, Nancy Pelosi, etc.? Because in the final analysis, this is not about secrets, but about politics.
You can even turn the monster against itself. If you’re raided by the DHS, implicate the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, etc.
That would be a hoot.
It’ll be interesting to see how this lawsuit turns out because it looks like a slam dunk, however the government can pull tricks out of a hat on stuff like this.