There’s a balance between justice and respecting the independence of the press. In this case, it appears the Justice Department may have gone too far.
By Farhan Daredia
Main Justice
Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Damm has served up a grand jury subpoena to the Las Vegas Review-Journal seeking identifying information of people who commented on a May 26 article about an ongoing tax evasion trial.
One commenter who used the name “Louis D. Brandeis” called Damm, the prosecutor, “evil incarnate and everything that is against the American justice system.” Others expressed anti-government sentiment of the kind that seems to flourish in the West.
The paper’s editor Thomas Mitchell wrote about the subpoena in his weekly column:
What the prosecutors don’t appear to understand is that we don’t have most of what they are seeking. We don’t require registration. A person could use a fictitious name and e-mail address, and most do. We have no addresses or phone numbers.
OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST
- Dept. Of Defense Employee Indicted for Leaking Info to China (AP)
- Security Constant Worry for Holocaust Museum (AP)
- D.C. Fed Judge Says He’ll Impose Same Sentence for Crack as Powdered Cocaine (The BLT – The Blog of LegalTimes)
- 16 Lawyers Apply for Miami U.S. Atty. Post (New Times)
- Jury Selected in ex-Rep. William Jefferson Trial (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
- House Votes 28-0 to Boot Convicted Texas Federal Judge (Wall Street Journal)
