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 Marshal Service.

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

The documents, some 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, obtained by the Times, offered no specific permission to seize reporting notes or files.

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

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(10-27-2013 02:51 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  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 Marshal Service.

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

The documents, some 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, obtained by the Times, offered no specific permission to seize reporting notes or files.

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

Read more

All part of the Obama administration's plan to silence any and all dissent from the Press. This is what happens in dictatorships.....how far we are falling as a country...............

Libs used to decry freedom of the press.

These new libs are just thugs.

What exactly is the criminal investigation they are charged with?

The reporters records and effects were not covered by the search warrant.

Suing is not the right response. Anything short of arrest is a weak response.

how very gestapo like to raid a home looking for an unregistered firearm and potato gun and take personal notes and government documents unrelated to the warrant.

(10-27-2013 07:11 PM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  how very gestapo like to raid a home looking for an unregistered firearm and potato gun and take personal notes and government documents unrelated to the warrant.

Our Republic is nearing a sham - and 50% of the population is okay with it so long as the government sends them their freebies. It amazes me how cheap it is to buy a large segment of the American population...........

(10-27-2013 07:19 PM)Crebman Wrote:  

(10-27-2013 07:11 PM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  how very gestapo like to raid a home looking for an unregistered firearm and potato gun and take personal notes and government documents unrelated to the warrant.

Our Republic is nearing a sham - and 50% of the population is okay with it so long as the government sends them their freebies. It amazes me how cheap it is to buy a large segment of the American population...........

When you got a couple of trillion dollars of other peoples money to redistribute, it becomes easy.