On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 07:01:32PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
From what I know of the situations, based on journalistic reports (from reports _other_ than from Declan), Declan took the obvious and legal steps to limit his testimony to statements of the form:
"Yes, I am a reporter for "Wired News.""
"Yes, I wrote the story you are referring to."
He was subpoenaed to testify, he and/or his employer hired lawyers to deal with the subpoena and to seek ways to state only things like the above, and, so far as I have ever heard, he did not offer "helpful" suggestions or speculations.
That is correct. I refused to do anything except confirm I wrote the article (first I hired a lawyer tried to quash the subpoena, but the judge did not grant our motion). That's why AUSA London asked the judge to declare me a "hostile witness". My writeup is here: http://www.politechbot.com/p-01883.html Naturally I will not reveal conversations I have as part of my newsgathering role that are confidential, private, on background, off-the-record, etc. Because my job requires that I be on call 24 hours and many conversations can be potentially related to topics I cover, I believe it is prudent to take a broad view of what I consider to be protected from prosecutorial inquiries. I don't think the transcript is online. I've been planning to buy it, and I'll get around to it next month. Anyway, Seth is becoming increasingly deranged; I'm not sure it's worth taking him seriously even to write a few paragraphs in reply. -Declan