Raided
-
Want to understand how outrageous Friday’s New York Times coverage of the FBI’s seizure of Project Veritas’s proprietary documents is? Just imagine what the Times would be saying if what is happening to PV were happening to . . . well . . . the Times itself.
What if federal prosecutors had had the temerity to seek, and managed to obtain, court-authorized search warrants against Times reporters, on the allegation that the paper was in possession of evidence of a crime — perhaps even that some of its reporters were somehow complicit in the crime? The screams of bloody murder from West 40th Street would be audible across America.
Sometimes, for example, there is federal-government jurisdiction for robbery — if, for example, stolen items involve federal-government materials or such interstate-commerce items as narcotics. It could be a federal crime to transfer or sell stolen items in interstate commerce. A theft involving a close family member of a high government official (or candidate for high office) could also be part of a bigger scheme; there could be a federal crime if the robbery of his daughter signaled a threat to Biden’s own safety, perhaps, or an effort to blackmail or extort him.
So we’d be getting out over our skis to pronounce that the FBI and federal prosecutors had no business looking into the robbery. Plus, it’s not like the Justice Department went off on its own hook here. A federal district court judge issued a search warrant. That is only supposed to happen if there is probable cause to believe that a federal crime has occurred (or is occurring) and that the location to be searched probably contains evidence of that crime.
All that said, it is not a crime for journalists to come into possession of unlawfully converted documents. And it is to be expected that journalists zealously guard their right to publish such materials — or at least to consider doing so. We see this play out often when Times reporters receive classified leaks from intelligence officials — it being both against the law for government officials to disseminate the information to unauthorized persons, and potentially criminal for the press to publish national-defense secrets (though doubts about constitutionality make such a prosecution highly unlikely).
So why isn’t the press closing ranks around Project Veritas? Because the so-called mainstream media despise PV.
That, too, is to be expected: PV uses against the Left, very much including against left-leaning media, the Left’s own sandbag tactics — e.g., covert investigation, spying informants who pretend to befriend the people they investigate, and selective publication of the fruits of the investigation in order to paint the target in the worst possible light. If Saul Alinsky had been a right-winger, James O’Keefe would be his favorite student. But PV’s unpopularity cannot mean that it does not merit the status of journalist, with all of the free-press protection that status implies.
O’Keefe concedes that PV came into possession of the diary. He says PV elected not to publish it after becoming aware of it through “tipsters.” To the extent that PV had physical custody of the diary, or some part of it, or a copy of it, O’Keefe says, “Project Veritas gave the diary to law enforcement to ensure it could be returned to its rightful owner.”
Regardless of whether that turns out to be a true and complete version of events, it is highly irregular for investigative journalists to be subjected to such intrusive government investigative tactics as search warrants. Furthermore, if what has been reported by the Times is indicative of the scope of the searches permitted by the court, then clearly the warrants were not narrowly tailored to authorize seizure only of evidence related to the stolen diary. To the contrary, the FBI grabbed extensive PV work product and attorney-client communications.
-
Sorry, but we now are a banana republic.
That was the intent of TDS to begin with. Instill enough righteous outrage in the sheeple that they'll choose anything other than the Bad Orange Thing. It worked as perfectly with the FBI as it did with the general public. Very sad to see, but predictable for those of us who understand human nature and culture.
-
Sorry, but we now are a banana republic.
That was the intent of TDS to begin with. Instill enough righteous outrage in the sheeple that they'll choose anything other than the Bad Orange Thing. It worked as perfectly with the FBI as it did with the general public. Very sad to see, but predictable for those of us who understand human nature and culture.
-
-
Yeah but the real problem is a few straggling giggle worthy righties. Just because authoritarian leftist moral panic has taken over our institutions from academia to the FBI doesn't mean we shouldn't be complaining loudest about the dumbest right-affiliated people we can find.
-
I’m sure the FBI will be quick to raid the NYT for having illegally obtained documents.
The Brad
-
I’m sure the FBI will be quick to raid the NYT for having illegally obtained documents.
@lufins-dad said in Raided:
I’m sure the FBI will be quick to raid the NYT for having illegally obtained documents.
NYT's preparing for visit from FBI.
-
@lufins-dad said in Raided:
I’m sure the FBI will be quick to raid the NYT for having illegally obtained documents.
NYT's preparing for visit from FBI.
@improviso they have a new pope?
-
I’m sure the FBI will be quick to raid the NYT for having illegally obtained documents.
-
The Justice Department in that part of the world have been a bunch of political hacks for years. Wouldn't hurt my feelings for a good half-dozen to hit the bricks.
With the extreme politicization of Justice, it becomes ever more important to appoint strong Constitutionalists to the Federal bench.
-
The concern is whether the FBI is acting on a justified federal crime or acting like a type of Praetorian Guard for the First Family.
This is not a new concern with the Bidens. Federal officers were also used when Hunter Biden’s gun was thrown into a trash bin in Wilmington by Hallie Biden, widow of Hunter’s deceased brother and who was then in a relationship with Hunter. Secret service agents reportedly appeared in the case and asked for the paperwork for the gun from the store where it was purchased. It is still not clear why.
In the end, the removal of the diary was a rotten act of someone with pecuniary or political motives, or both. However, that does not address the equally important questions of the use of the FBI or the need for a federal investigation.
It’s cast into high relief as news outlets around the country run stories on how to avoid buying property stolen in smash and grabs.
As some call for a federal response to the smash-and-grab crime wave, the feds may want to respond as well to questions about its unrelenting focus on who grabbed Ashley Biden’s diary.
-
Ashley Biden’s Diary: Will The FBI Raid The New York Times?
I have worked both sides in media cases over three decades and I have written memos on the legal considerations for publication. Often these memos talk about how far a publication can go under existing law. That appears to be the tenor of the Barr memo. The New York Times clearly has a long line of such memos on the publication of classified or stolen material and would cry foul if those were stolen and published. The Times described the memos as providing “legal advice about how different PV operations could violate various laws, including the Espionage Act and Section 1001. The memos give guidance about how PV can remain in Mr. Barr’s view, on the right side of these laws.”
So the New York Times wants to publish the legal advice given to another publication on how to stay “on the right side” of federal laws. There is no concern how such reporting undermines the ability of reporters and lawyers to work in this field. In decades as a legal commentator, law professor, and lawyer in this area, I have never seen such an intrusion into this area of confidential communications of a news organization by another news organization.
Putting aside the horrendous judgment of the New York Times, the story returns us to the glaring contradiction with the Ashley Biden story
-
Ashley Biden verifies that it's her diary.
Link to video
