U.S. prosecutors sent subpoena to MSNBC reporter in hacking investigation

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/wire_story.html?uri=/dailynews/155/economy/U_S_prosecutors_sent_subpoena_:.shtml

By Ted Bridis, Associated Press, 6/4/2002 22:36   

WASHINGTON (AP) Without required approval, U.S. prosecutors sent a
subpoena to MSNBC demanding a reporter's notes, e-mails and other
information as part of an investigation into a nomadic young hacker
who acknowledged breaking into computers at The New York Times earlier
this year.

The subpoena, which was withdrawn weeks later, also demanded any
similar material from MSNBC involving another journalist who contacted
the Times on behalf of the newspaper hacker after the break-in, then
wrote about it for an online publication.

Under guidelines from the Justice Department, Attorney General John
Ashcroft or his deputy must personally approve any subpoenas sent to
journalists, and Barbara Comstock, director of the Office of Public
Affairs, must review such requests. But senior Justice officials on
Ashcroft's staff at headquarters said they were unfamiliar with the
MSNBC subpoena, and Ms. Comstock said she did not review it, officials
said.

''If that's true ... they violated their own policy,'' said Lucy
Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of
the Press.

The subpoena was sent to MSNBC by an inexperienced assistant U.S.  
attorney in New York who did not know about guidelines for sending
such court orders to news organizations, a federal official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity. When senior officials in the
office of U.S. Attorney James B. Comey Jr. found out, they instructed
him to withdraw the subpoena, this official said.

The subpoena represents at least the second time since 2001 the Bush
administration has tried to compel journalists to turn over
information related to a criminal probe.

Herbert Hadad, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney in New York, declined
to discuss it.

The Justice Department last year obtained the personal phone records
of Associated Press reporter John Solomon after he wrote about a
federal wiretap of Sen. Robert Torricelli.

MSNBC's lawyer, Yuki Ishizuka, said it was unclear whether federal
prosecutors will resubmit the subpoena, but the company has recently
warned some reporters not to delete e-mails that might be connected to
the case.

Ishizuka said the subpoena, withdrawn in mid-May, demanded from MSNBC
reporter Bob Sullivan any e-mails or notes about conversations about
the newspaper's computer break-in with hacker Adrian Lamo and Kevin
Poulsen, now an online journalist.


 

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