Posted on 02/19/2008 10:08:32 AM PST by TrebleRebel
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge says he will hold a former USA Today reporter in contempt if she continues refusing to identify sources for stories about a former Army scientist under scrutiny in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
At a hearing Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said that reporter Toni Locy (LOW-see) must cooperate with Steven J. Hatfill in his lawsuit against the government.
Hatfill is suing the Justice Department, saying the agency violated the federal Privacy Act by giving the media information about the FBI's investigation of him.
In addition to Locy, the judge is considering whether to find former CBS reporter James Stewart in contempt of a court order requiring the reporters' cooperation in the lawsuit.
Locy also is a former reporter for The Associated Press.
ping
Are there any good opinions / theories of who actually did this?
Sick’em Tiger.
Hmmm. James Stewart was the author of an investigative book about the Clinton’s and Whitewater, remember? It was titled “Blood Sport”.
“Are there any good opinions / theories of who actually did this?”
Ed Lake suggests that maybe some of the reporters made up their government sources, which is possible. I think some govt. lawyers suggested that.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4wzN5qdVilu_CGqxNINcfwz2czwD8UTHO881
Judge May Hold Reporter in Contempt
By HOPE YEN – 18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday he will hold a former USA Today reporter in contempt if she continues refusing to identify sources for stories about a former Army scientist under scrutiny in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said reporter Toni Locy defied his order last August that she cooperate with Steven J. Hatfill in his lawsuit against the government. Walton indicated he would impose a fine until she divulged her sources, but that he would take a few more days to decide whether to postpone the penalty as she pursues an appeal.
The judge is also considering whether to find former CBS reporter James Stewart in contempt.
“I will order she provide the sources of information,” Walton said during a hearing, as Locy, dressed in black, looked grim and slowly shook her head in disagreement.
“I don’t like to have to hold anyone in contempt,” the judge added, but when it comes to cases where a person says his reputation was destroyed because of stories published about him, “the media has to be responsible.”
Both Locy, who is also a former Associated Press reporter, and her attorney, Robert C. Bernius, declined to comment after the hearing.
Walton did not immediately indicate the amount of the fine. Hatfill’s attorneys have asked Walton to initially fine Locy $1,000 per day and to prohibit media corporations from paying the fines for her to force compliance. The proposed daily fine would have increased to $2,000 after a week and continue to increase $1,000 every week.
In Stewart’s case, Walton said he would take a few weeks to consider the reporter’s claim that divulging his sources was no longer necessary since several law enforcement officials had already acknowledged talking to reporters in the case about information similar to what Stewart reported.
Hatfill, who worked at the Army’s infectious diseases laboratory from 1997 to 1999, was publicly identified as a “person of interest” in the 2001 anthrax attacks. He is suing the Justice Department, accusing the agency of violating the federal Privacy Act by giving reporters information about the FBI’s investigation of him.
Walton previously ordered five journalists to reveal all of their sources. Stewart and Locy refused, saying Hatfill was partly to blame for news stories identifying him as a suspect after his attorney provided details about the investigation.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Bernius also argued that Locy could not remember who gave her information specifically about Hatfill and that she should not be forced to disclose the names of roughly 10 FBI and Justice Department officials who spoke to her generally about the anthrax investigation.
That immediately drew a skeptical response from Walton.
“I’m not suggesting that Ms. Locy would not be truthful, but it would be convenient for reporters in this type of situation to say ‘I don’t remember’ and then be off the hook,” Walton said. “That would be one way to avoid the serious consequences of the law.”
Walton’s move is the latest in a handful of cases nationwide, most notably in Washington, in which reporters have been held in contempt for failing to reveal confidential sources.
In 2004, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson fined five reporters $500 a day each for refusing to identify their sources for stories about Wen Ho Lee, a former nuclear weapons scientist once suspected of spying. After Jackson postponed the fines pending appeals, news organizations including The AP eventually agreed to pay Lee $750,000 as part of a $1.6 million settlement of his privacy lawsuit against the government after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals in the case.
More recently, last year nearly a dozen of Washington’s best-known journalists took the stand during the CIA leak criminal trial, most of them unwillingly under court order by Walton, to recount confidential interviews. In that case, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was sent to jail for 85 days after refusing to disclose her sources.
That would make two of us.
The best news I’ve heard in quite a while. Judge Walton doesn’t kid around, and it looks like he’s not going to put up with the bullcrap from the government-media complex for much longer.
What's your definition of "good"?
My analysis says the anthrax letters were sent by a scientist who lives and works in Central New Jersey.
The depositions make it clear that the nonsense about bloodhounds getting Dr. Hatfill's scent off the anthrax letters was MADE UP by the FBI as part of a "sting" operation to find out who was leaking confidential information to the media. They caught the top man in the DOJ's Washington Criminal Division in their "sting" after Newsweek printed the bogus story.
Jail the reporters.
It's called a drip. To find a leaker, you invent a drip. The drip is fake. You only tell one office or one person.
If the drip then makes its way into the public domain, then you have found your leaker.
Ed I’ll take your word for it the Louisiana Denny’s adventure was bogus,
But I’m pretty sure “special” dogs trained to use “scent packs” were brought from California to Washington D.C.
The daughter of the leaker represents microbiologist Al-Timimi pro bono against charges of sedition.
The Motive of the Amerithrax Leaker
http://www.bloggernews.net/113913
The Washington Post reports that the FBI suspects Al-Timimi of being involved in the anthrax mailings.
Sometimes the Fourth Estate is more focused on striking a pose in defense of the First Amendment than in actually exercising it.
Judge said there wasn’t a scinitilla of evidence against Hatfill.
Eric Lichtblau, “Reporter Held in Contempt in Anthrax Case,” New York Times, February 20, 2008
Not too surprising, considering that there isn't, and never was! The worst things anyone has on Hatfill is that he was prone to exaggeration and self-prmotion, and that he puffed up his resume'. I've known guys who were like that, but being like that doesn't make one a mass murderer.
Maybe the scum in the so-called mainstream media will finally take this hint from Judge Walton and stop putting out these little hit pieces against Hatfill implying that he's guilty and the government needs to charge him right away. And I know some of them out there are reading this thread.
I don’t thiink the harsh language is warranted (although NK should have called Dr. H before running the July 2, 2002 column).
The NYT reports that the Judge indicated:
“There’s not a scintilla of evidence to suggest Dr. Hatfill had anything to do with it.”
That’s tough talk in legalese suggesting summary judgment would be warranted on the issue — that there is no triable issue of fact on the subject.
The reporting in 2002 and 2003 is perfectly understandable, however, given the high level of the position making the leaks.
Dr. H does not have a particularly strong footing on the moral high road given, his lawyer says, he falsely claimed he had a PhD in gaining access to dangerous pathogens.
The key omission or mistake is that NK did not call or contact Dr. H before the July 2, 2002 article.
The journalists are in the business of news, not analysis. On the rare occasion they are allowed to engage in analysis, and their editors authorize a budget that permits them to dig into and investigate the facts, they should pick up the phone and be sure they are giving the other side a chance to provide their input and clear up misunderstandings or mistakes.
Five years later, if we as a public can’t overcome the mistake — when the CIA director himself has published a book saying the anthrax planning was in parallel with the planning for the Planes Operation — then we have only ourselves to blame.
Background:
Press Release, “Judge finds Locy in contempt in Hatfill suit,” The Reporters Committee Freedom of the Press, February 19, 2008
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2008/0219-con-judgef.html
“The Go-To Lawyer of ‘Northern Virginiastan,’ ABA Journal, September 2007
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/the_go_to_lawyer_of_northern_virginiastan/
Mary Beth Sheridan, “Hardball Tactics in an Era of Threats,” Washington Post, September 3, 2006; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR2006090201096.html
Joby Warrick, “Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case: Scientist With Ties To Group Goes Free,” Washington Post , October 31, 2006; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001250.html
If we really had an independent investigative media in this country instead of a bunch of lazy, agenda-driven lowlifes, they would be trying to find the answer to the REAL question in the whole sorry Steven Hatfill saga.
And that question is: just exactly why did that lady Barbara Hatch Rosenberg specifically point the finger right at Hatfill for being the killer with absolutely no real evidence whatsoever to back it up? There has to be some reason for why this all happened, but I have yet to see anyone so much as even raise the question!
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