The Trump administration’s antagonism toward media outlets that report on its massive and haphazard deportation plans has been a running theme this year.

In February, I reported on an alarming investigation that right-wing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr opened into San Francisco radio station KCBS, which shared federal immigration agents’ live locations in connection with a raid in Northern California. And President Donald Trump’s so-called border czar, Tom Homan, has accused the media of putting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents at risk of being “ambushed” as they investigate the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The administration’s angst escalated Friday, with the Justice Department releasing a vague statement announcing that it had opened a criminal investigation into the “selective leak of inaccurate, but nevertheless classified, information from the Intelligence Community relating to Tren de Aragua.”

The statement then plunges fully into MAGA conspiracism, adding:

We will not tolerate politically motivated efforts by the Deep State to undercut President Trump’s agenda by leaking false information onto the pages of their allies at the New York Times. The Alien Enemies Proclamation is supported by fact, law, and common sense, which we will establish in court and then expel the TDA terrorists from this country.

Last Thursday — that is, one day prior to the DOJ’s announcement — The New York Times reported that American intelligence agencies had “circulated findings last month that stand starkly at odds with Mr. Trump’s claims” that Tren de Aragua was being directed within the United States by Venezuela’s government. The Trump administration has sent hundreds of immigrants to a widely decried prison in El Salvador and has controversially cited the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime law from 1878 that allows for special deportation activities in the event of an invasion — as justification.

The Justice Department’s statement certainly makes it seem like, above all, the Trump administration is fuming about the legal basis for its cruel immigration policy being undermined.

For the record: I’ve spoken with legal experts who’ve expressed confusion over the DOJ’s head-scratching claim that the leaks contained “inaccurate, but nevertheless classified, information.” It certainly appears that this investigation is more of a political publicity stunt than it is a legitimate fact-finding mission.

Ja'han Jones

Ja’han Jones is an MSNBC opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. He is a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”