DOJ Falsely Claimed That Reporter James Rosen Was Involved In Bombings In Trying To Hide Fact

Tech Dirt ^ | 6/14/13 | Mike Masnick

[Nachum]

from the whoa dept Okay, here's one that's just crazy. A few weeks ago, lots of folks, including us, covered the story of how the Justice Department claimed to a court that reporter James Rosen was "an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator" in a leak of some State Department info concerning North Korea. He was none of the above. He was a reporter, but the DOJ was abusing its power in order to spy on his email and phone records, to try to find the source of the leak. Soon after that, it came out that the DOJ had been working overtime to make sure that the details of the surveillance of Rosen's communications was held under seal.

However, some are noticing an odd statement in the DOJ's filing to try to keep the case under seal. In what is likely a case of an overworked DOJ lawyer just cutting and pasting from a different attempt to keep some surveillance a secret, one of the motions to keep the search warrant sealed falsely claimed that Rosen was involved in a bombing, rather than just disclosing information on North Korea.

[Sherman Logan]

Yes, and if he conspires with someone else to commit a crime, it is conspiracy under the law. Exactly as it would be if you or I did exactly the same thing.

Look, I understand it is the job of reporters to get stories. I just don’t understand why actions that would be criminal if taken by you or I are suddenly not criminal just because the perp works for a media outlet. I just don’t see that in the Constitution.

Burglary to get a story is not legal. Neither is blackmail or armed robbery. Why is conspiracy to release classified information legal?

[penelopesire]

Hope he sues the hell out of them!! Outrageous!

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Dan Ellsberg and Anthony Russo say you’re wrong. Remember, no successful prosecutions in the “Pentagon Papers” caper.

Lots of interesting problems in the Rosen case, but “espionage” isn’t one of them. It is a Holder invention because he is incompetent, corrupt, desperate, and has absolutely no morals.

[LyinLibs]

[TBP]

Probably not a mistake. They’ll do anything for power and to destroy their enemies.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Your theory is incorrect. No conspiracy and no theft occurred. From Stephen Kim’s attorney:

On August 27, 2010 the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney’s office charged Stephen Kim with illegally disclosing national defense information (classified information) to someone in the media. The government has not alleged that Stephen gave away any document, that he was paid to do anything, that he stole the information, or that he acted in secret. It does not allege that Stephen was a spy or that he acted to assist an enemy of the United States. And, it does not allege that Stephen engaged in a pattern of misconduct. Rather, the case against Stephen Kim seems to be based on a prosecutor’s theory that Stephen talked to someone in the media about a topic of current events and – in that one and only conversation – disclosed classified information.