The DOJ Spied on Journalists’ Emails
Via Sealed Search Warrants and Non-Disclosure Orders
Microsoft’s legal documents reveal how the Department of Justice repeatedly concealed possession of privileged communications from a federal judge.
The documents reveal that the DOJ went behind a federal judge’s back to conceal secret warrants and orders that were used to spy on eight Project Veritas journalists.
After a U.S. District Court Judge rejected the DOJ’s argument to ignore Project Veritas’ “journalistic privileges,” the DOJ went behind the judge’s back to obtain an extension on two sealed non-disclosure orders from a magistrate judge to conceal the fact they already had unsupervised and unfettered access to Project Veritas’ journalists’ privileged emails and contacts.
Here are some of the highlights from today’s video:
- Despite multiple opportunities to do so, the DOJ has not publicly disclosed the orders, warrants, or subpoenas to Judge Torres or Special Master Judge Barbara Jones – who was appointed by Judge Torres to protect Veritas’ “journalistic privileges” from potential DOJ overreach.
- The DOJ has not sought Judge Jones’ approval to review Project Veritas’ materials seized from Microsoft. The documents uncover a sixteen-month clandestine campaign against journalists in which the DOJ obtained 7 secret orders, warrants and subpoenas from six magistrates within the Southern District of New York.
- In a motion filed Tuesday, Paul Calli, an attorney for Project Veritas, fiercely opposed the actions from the DOJ which he called an act of “violence” to the First Amendment.
- Based on preliminary research data, the SDNY appears to be in possession of nearly 150K documents they should not have. In addition to the emails, the SDNY obtained over one thousand contacts from journalists that they also failed to disclose to Judge Torres or to the Special Master.
Watch:
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