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New: Read the response from the Department of Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Brant Houston, 573-882-2042
August 28, 2001
IRE PROTESTS SUBPOENA OF REPORTER'S PHONE RECORDS
IRE has sent a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft protesting the subpoenaing of an Associated Press reporter's phone records after he wrote about the investigation of a U.S. senator.
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.
Text of letter:
August 28, 2001
Mr. John Ashcroft
U.S. Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Dear Mr. Ashcroft:
We are writing to protest strongly the subpoena of the phone records of Associated Press reporter John Solomon, who wrote about the Sen. Robert Torricelli investigation. Coming on the heels of the jailing of Vanessa Leggett on contempt-of-court charges in Houston, we are deeply concerned that this signals a troubling policy shift and ominous antagonism toward the First Amendment and media rights by the Justice Department.
We believe this reverses the long-standing policy that recognizes that it is a serious step to go after a reporter's phone records. Consistent with its obligation to uphold and enforce the First Amendment, the Justice Department should provide reporters with the opportunity to contest such an action unless advance notice would jeopardize an ongoing investigation. In this case, the AP reporter was writing about information already in the hands of the government, so there is essentially no basis for establishing that any such jeopardy existed.
We firmly believe that in a free and democratic society, journalists must have the right to protect the confidentiality of sources and unpublished information. To deny journalists that protection threatens the independence of a free press guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
IRE is a professional organization of more than 4,000 journalists dedicated to upholding the high standards of journalism and to training journalists in the best techniques of newsgathering. We have been based at the journalism school of the University of Missouri for more than 20 years.
While we understand that the Attorney General has disqualified himself from the AP subpoena, we nevertheless believe that this incident may be part of an unsound trend and reflects a change of policy that has occurred at the Department. We seek assurance that the Justice Department will take heed in the future to give proper deference and consideration of the First Amendment and qualified privilege.
Sincerely,
Brant Houston
Executive Director
Text of response from the Department of Justice:
December 4, 2001
Mr. Brant Houston
Executive Director
Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.
138 Neff Annex
Missouri School of Journalism
Columbia, Mo 65211
Dear Mr. Houston:
Your letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft concerning the
subpoena for telephone records of John Solomon has been
referred to me for response.
Inasmuch as the subpoena was issued in connection with an
ongoing criminal investigation, I am unable to discuss the
specific details of the case or the reasons for the subpoena. I
can assure you, however, that the subpoena was approved as
required by the Department's regulations and that there has been
no change in Department of Justice policy.
Sincerely,
John C. Keeney
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
