National Press Club Protests Subpoena of Reporter's Phone Records

TBO.com ^ | 9/07/01 | AP

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Press Club told Attorney General John Ashcroft that the Justice Department's subpoena of an Associated Press journalist's telephone records amounted to a threat to constitutionally guaranteed press freedoms.

"We believe such actions threaten the right of journalists to protect confidential sources and information, a cornerstone of a free press guaranteed by the First Amendment," the club's president, Richard Ryan, said in a letter to Ashcroft. Dated Wednesday, the letter was circulated Friday.

The Justice Department subpoenaed AP reporter John Solomon's home phone records while trying to identify what law enforcement officials told Solomon about a wiretap intercept of a discussion by Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., of campaign donations.

The department obtained the records 10 days after a May 4 AP story ran about the wiretap in an organized crime investigation that led to guilty pleas by the operators of a Florida pizzeria.

Under Justice guidelines, such subpoenas normally are allowed only as a last resort and the targeted journalist has been notified.

In his letter, Ryan wrote that the 4,500-member National Press Club "is concerned that the Justice Department is threatening press freedoms and loosening 30-year-old policies against going after journalists' notes and records."

[Steve_Seattle]

I've read several articles about this and I still don't have a clue what's going on, particularly as to why the Justice Department is involved and why they are interested in the reporter's phone records. Is it that some law enforcement officer illegally leaked information to the reporter? Are they trying to protect the integrity of an on-going investigation? Can anyone explain?