No subject

[London, Robb]

Attorney General Ashcroft personally approved your subpoena, and that of another reporter who published admissions by James Dalton Bell.  

The Government is not seeking any source material, notes, or other unpublished material from you by virtue of this subpoena.  The limited purpose of the subpoena is to have you review two of your published articles, acknowledge your authorship, review several of the statements which you attributed to Bell in your articles, and have you verify that he in fact told you those things.  That's all.  We're only interested in having you testify about statements of his that you published.  If your subpoena could have been avoided, it would have been.  Unfortunately, the Federal Rules of Evidence do not permit a news article to be admitted into evidence for these purposes unless the person who wrote it can attest to its authorship and the accuracy of its content.  This must be done in open court, at trial, and cannot be accomplished by affidavit, unless the defendant is willing to stipulate that your appearance can be avoided and that your articles can be admitted into evidence witho!
ut!
 your appearance as a foundation witness.  Mr. Bell is not interested in any such stipulations.  I regret any inconvenience that a trip to Tacoma may cause.  

I am extremely sensitive to the intrusiveness of any subpoena and the potential negative impact that press subpoenas can have on the news gathering function.  The subpoena that has been served on you, is, in my experience, as minimally intrusive as any such subpoena can be.

Robb London
Assistant United States Attorney
Western District of Washington