So Eric Holder’s Justice Department has just issued new guidelines for the federal government’s treatment of journalists. I’ll wait a minute while that sinks in …
That’s right: in a clear violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights, a branch of the U.S. government is making policy regarding its treatment of the “press”:
The Justice Department on Friday announced changes to how it will conduct investigations of leaks of classified information to reporters, making it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain journalists’ phone records and other private information without giving news organizations advance notice….
According to the rule changes, the government will no longer be able to pursue a reporter as a co-conspirator in a criminal leak as a way to get around a legal bar on secret search warrants for reporting materials.
That tactic was used in the FBI’s argument in the Fox News case. Specifically, an affidavit filed in the case by an FBI agent said Rosen may have acted as “an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in the leak of classified information to the government’s main target in the investigation, a State Department official.
http://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2013/07/16/licensed-to-smooch/?singlepage=true
That’s right: in a clear violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights, a branch of the U.S. government is making policy regarding its treatment of the “press”:
The Justice Department on Friday announced changes to how it will conduct investigations of leaks of classified information to reporters, making it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain journalists’ phone records and other private information without giving news organizations advance notice….
According to the rule changes, the government will no longer be able to pursue a reporter as a co-conspirator in a criminal leak as a way to get around a legal bar on secret search warrants for reporting materials.
That tactic was used in the FBI’s argument in the Fox News case. Specifically, an affidavit filed in the case by an FBI agent said Rosen may have acted as “an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in the leak of classified information to the government’s main target in the investigation, a State Department official.
http://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2013/07/16/licensed-to-smooch/?singlepage=true
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