krebscycle

Gabe Rottman, the ACLU Legislative counsel is very upset that the government got a warrant (approved by a judge) to look at the phone records of a  “reporter” for Fox News. Apparently if we are going to be principled progressives we have to pretend that Fox is not a component of a racist, reactionary, political party but an innocent news organization just asking questions about matters of public policy. The “update” on the blog post tells the tale, however:

Update: The seventh paragraph of this blog has been revised slightly to better reflect the government’s allegations in the Rosen case. The affidavit does not allege that Rosen merely asked Kim to comment on a story already written. Rather, the government argues that Rosen implored Kim to turn over sensitive information.

So the indignant first published edition of the post excoriates the tyrannical government for asking a Judge for a search warrant on a reporters email when all he did was “merely ask” that a government official “comment on a story already written”.  Eventually someone actually read the government’s case (which was online all the time) and realizes that the Government has strong evidence that the  “reporter"  pushed a government official for secret documents that he knew were classified and sensitive and that exposed sensitive intelligence and diplomatic activities. But, what the heck, make the paragraph a little fuzzier

What’s astonishing here is that never before has the government argued that newsgathering—in this case, asking a source to provide sensitive information—is itself illegal.

So astonishing that the government would make such an argument.  Here’s  Thurgood Marshall in the famous  case New York Times versus the United States 

At least one of the many statutes in this area seems relevant to these cases. Congress has provided in 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) that whoever,

having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book … or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits … the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it … [s]hall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

Congress has also made it a crime to conspire to commit any of the offenses listed in 18 U.S.C. § 793(e).

Astonishing!