Reporter's Phone Records Subpoenaed

Nob Odie noone at nuther-planet.net
Tue Aug 28 05:58:14 PDT 2001


Reporter's Phone Records Subpoenaed 

By Pete Yost
Associated Press Writer
Monday,
Aug. 27, 2001; 6:44 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– The Justice Department obtained
by subpoena the home telephone records of an Associated Press reporter for
a period in which he wrote about the investigation of Sen. Robert Torricelli,
the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan has disclosed. 

In an Aug. 20 letter,
the office of U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said the government subpoenaed telephone
records of John Solomon for incoming and outgoing calls at the reporter's home
from May 2 to May 7. White was appointed last spring to oversee the Torricelli
investigation. 

Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden declined to comment
on the matter Monday. 

On May 4, an AP story under Solomon's byline quoted
unidentified law enforcement officials as saying Torricelli had been recorded
on a wiretap in 1996 discussing fund-raising with relatives of a prominent
Chicago crime figure. 

Law enforcement officials can face criminal penalties
for disclosing information obtained under federal wiretaps. 

The unidentified
officials told the AP that the intercepted call received new scrutiny two years
later when allegations surfaced of thousands of dollars in illegal straw donations
to Torricelli's campaign. According to the AP story, the law enforcement officials
said several people have been questioned about the intercept and whether Torricelli
or his staff ever encouraged them to disguise donations. 

"We are outraged
by what the Justice Department has done and we will seek any available legal
redress," said AP President and CEO Louis D. Boccardi. 

"Their actions fly
in the face of long-standing policy that recognizes what a serious step it
is to go after a reporter's phone records. We hope that this secret assault
on the press is not an indication of the Bush administration's attitude toward
a press free of government interference," Boccardi said. 

First Amendment
lawyer Floyd Abrams said a Justice Department subpoena of a journalist's telephone
records was extremely rare. 

"I cannot say that every time the government
seeks to obtain telephone records of journalists it necessarily violates the
First Amendment, but there's no doubt that the decision of the government to
go so far as to obtain these telephone records raises constitutional questions
of a high order of delicacy," Abrams said. 

Deputy Attorney General Larry
Thompson approved the subpoena for the reporter's records, according to the
letter mailed to Solomon. Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself
from the matter. 

Torricelli campaigned last year for Ashcroft's Democratic
opponent in the U.S. Senate race in Missouri. Ashcroft lost to Jean Carnahan,
who stepped in after her husband was killed in a plane crash. 

© Copyright
2001 The Associated P





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