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Exclusive: Feds confiscate investigative reporter’s confidential files

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by Revmitchell, Oct 25, 2013.

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  1. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    A veteran Washington D.C. investigative journalist says the Department of Homeland Security confiscated a stack of her confidential files during a raid of her home in August — leading her to fear that a number of her sources inside the federal government have now been exposed.

    In an interview with The Daily Caller, journalist Audrey Hudson revealed that the Department of Homeland Security and Maryland State Police were involved in a predawn raid of her Shady Side, Md. home on Aug. 6. Hudson is a former Washington Times reporter and current freelance reporter.

    A search warrant obtained by TheDC indicates that the August raid allowed law enforcement to search for firearms inside her home.

    The document notes that her husband, Paul Flanagan, pleaded guilty in 1986 to resisting arrest in Prince George’s County. The warrant called for police to search the residence they share and seize all weapons and ammunition because he is prohibited under the law from possessing firearms.

    But without Hudson’s knowledge, the agents also confiscated a batch of documents that contained information about sources inside the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, she said.

    Outraged over the seizure, Hudson is now speaking out. She said no subpoena for the notes was presented during the raid and argues the confiscation was outside of the search warrant’s parameter.

    “They took my notes without my knowledge and without legal authority to do so,” Hudson said this week. “The search warrant they presented said nothing about walking out of here with a single sheet of paper.”

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/e...confidential-files-during-raid/#ixzz2ijb8ZVaV
     
    #1 Revmitchell, Oct 25, 2013
  2. thisnumbersdisconnected

    thisnumbersdisconnected New Member

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    She'll sue, they'll return them promptly -- having already copied everything in her files. They got what they wanted, illegally, but will appear to apologize for the "inconvenience" and assure her "it was just a mistake."
     
    #2 thisnumbersdisconnected, Oct 25, 2013
  3. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    And her sources will be gotten rid of. Obama cannot seem to fire those who are incompetent but they will work to control information by questionable and immoral means. This admin is mean and nasty.
     
    #3 Revmitchell, Oct 25, 2013
  4. thisnumbersdisconnected

    thisnumbersdisconnected New Member

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    It's starting to get some attention from the national media. This might be another nail in those attempting to build a coffin for the Great Pretender.


    First, get this straight: Agents, fully armed and in body armor as though going to arrest a drug kingpin or a serial killer showed up at this woman's house -- to look for unregistered firearms -- something there was no reasonable expectation they would find, given her husband's status as a government employee with a DHS agency (Coast Guard) -- and a potato gun?? Is this the best subterfuge our security forces can come up with? Great googly moogly, no wonder we're losing to the terrorists!! We employ idiots to stop them!

    The illegal raid was apparently a fishing exhibition for notes and documents related to a series critical of the Federal Air Marshall program in 2005 and 2006. It was only those files, out of literally hundreds of boxes containing notes, documents and investigative work Hudson has done over the years.

    Sometime in early to mid-September, the Department of Homeland Security called her and told her she could come pick up her documents, some five weeks after the raid. She had just become aware a few days before that the boxes were even missing. Undoubtedly, as I said in my earlier post, the files were wholly copied and replaced, probably as though they haven't been touched.

    This constitutes illegal use of the federal warrant process in order to acquire privileged documents protected under the First Amendment. There is no reasonable way this intrusion into Hudson's life and home can be justified. It is an illegal search and seizure, particularly since the government warrant said absolutely nothing about documents, though an invoice given by the agents at the raid listed "miscellaneous documents" without describing them. That is prima facia evidence the seizure is illegal, given the warrant didn't say anything about documents.

    This is criminal. Our government and its agencies are criminal. When are we going to get fed up with it and take it all back?
     
    #4 thisnumbersdisconnected, Oct 28, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 28, 2013
  5. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    DHS, Coast Guard, MD State Police Raid Reporter's Home

    “This really can’t stand,” Hudson told me. “You cannot come into a journalist’s home under false pretenses with a bogus warrant and just waltz out with confidential files.”

    So if you’re doing the constitutional math, I’d say the Obama administration has violated the Hudson family’s first, second and fourth amendment rights.

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013...-dawn-raid-on-reporter-home-raises-questions/
     
    #5 InTheLight, Oct 28, 2013
  6. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    #6 InTheLight, Oct 28, 2013
  7. preachinjesus

    preachinjesus Well-Known Member
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    Heard about this a couple of weeks ago. Its terrible and sickening.

    We've become the exact thing we opposed in 1776.
     
    #7 preachinjesus, Oct 28, 2013
  8. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    Armed agents seize records of reporter, Washington Times prepares legal action

    Maryland State Police and federal agents used a search warrant in an unrelated criminal investigation to seize the private reporting files of an award-winning former investigative journalist for The Washington Times who had exposed problems in the Homeland Security Department's Federal Air Marshals Service.

    Reporter Audrey Hudson said the investigators, who included an agent for Homeland Security's Coast Guard service, made a pre-dawn raid of her family home Aug. 6 and took her private notes and government documents that she had obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

    SEE ALSO: Judicial Watch sues IRS for stonewalling on tea party FOIA

    The documents, some of which chronicled her sources and her work at The Times about problems inside the Homeland Security Department, were seized under a warrant to search for unregistered firearms and a “potato gun” suspected of belonging to her husband, Paul Flanagan, a Coast Guard employee. Mr. Flanagan has not been charged with any wrongdoing since the raid.

    The warrant, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, offered no specific permission to seize reporting notes or files.

    The Times said it is preparing legal action to fight what it called an unwarranted intrusion on the First Amendment.

    “While we appreciate law enforcement’s right to investigate legitimate concerns, there is no reason for agents to use an unrelated gun case to seize the First Amendment protected materials of a reporter,” Times Editor John Solomon said. “This violates the very premise of a free press, and it raises additional concerns when one of the seizing agencies was a frequent target of the reporter’s work.

    Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ecords-reporter-washington-tim/#ixzz2j44DNEqM
    Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
     
    #8 Revmitchell, Oct 28, 2013
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