Reporter in anthrax case faces contempt

Judge skeptical
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 based on their expectation the U.S. Supreme Court would decline to hear appeals in the case. The high court turned away the appeal after the settlement was announced.

More recently, last year nearly a dozen of Washington’s best-known journalists took the stand during the CIA leak criminal trial in Walton’s court. Several had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in the case. One of them, New York Times reporter Judith Miller, was sent to jail for 85 days after refusing to disclose her sources as ordered by U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan.

In the Hatfill case, the other reporters ordered to disclose sources were Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman of Newsweek and Allan Lengel of The Washington Post. In court papers, Hatfill’s attorneys indicated that these reporters had cooperated in revealing information at least in part.

MORE FROM SECURITY

Security Section Front

White House picks new cyber czar Panel: Lithuanian security approved CIA prisons Did ‘Jihadi cool’ lure students to Pakistan? Obama plan could limit secret documents U.S. sends 12 detainees to home nations Security Section Front   Add Security headlines to your news reader: