DOJ Official Had No Response to This Simple Yet Scathing Tweet From CNN's Jake Tapper

When U.S. Department of Justice official Brian Fallon praised Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly for his “gutsy” reporting in Ferguson, Missouri, he likely didn’t expect such a tough response from veteran journalist Jake Tapper.

DOJ is lucky to have a gutsy reporter like @Ryanjreilly on our beat. We knew that even before tonight. Glad he and @WesleyLowery are ok.

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 14, 2014

As TheBlaze reported on Wednesday, both Reilly and Lowery were detained by police in Ferguson and later released without charges after they failed to clear out of a McDonald’s restaurant quickly enough. They were both covering the ongoing unrest following the police-involved shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

But the DOJ official’s praise for the journalist was an easy opening for CNN’s Tapper to ask a follow-up question:

.@brianefallon how do you distinguish between the "gutsy" reporters and the one the administration is threatening to put in jail?

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 14, 2014

The tweet I sent about gutsy reporters was a reference to James Risen -- if you don't know his case, check it out.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper)

August 14, 2014

Tapper did not get a response from Fallon on Twitter.

The Obama administration has been heavily criticized by members of the press for aggressively targeting whistleblowers and even the journalists who break the stories. In fact, the DOJ recently ordered reporter James Risen to testify against one of his confidential sources who reportedly leaked classified information about the CIA in 2006.

Risen says he’d go to jail before outing his sources.