AP sues over access to FBI records involving fake news story
Aug 27, 11:11 AM EDT
AP SUES OVER ACCESS TO FBI RECORDS INVOLVING FAKE NEWS
STORY
BY MICHAEL BIESECKER ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Associated Press sued the U.S.
Department of Justice Thursday over the FBI's failure to provide public records
related to the creation of a fake news story used to plant surveillance
software on a suspect's computer.
AP joined with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press to file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
At issue is a 2014 Freedom of Information request seeking
documents related to the FBI's decision to send a web link to the fake article
to a 15-year-old boy suspected of making bomb threats to a high school near
Olympia, Washington. The link enabled the FBI to infect the suspect's computer
with software that revealed its location and Internet address.
AP strongly objected to the ruse, which was uncovered
last year in documents obtained through a separate FOIA request made by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"The FBI both misappropriated the trusted name of
The Associated Press and created a situation where our credibility could have
been undermined on a large scale," AP General Counsel Karen Kaiser said in
a 2014 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder.
"It is improper and inconsistent with a free press
for government personnel to masquerade as The Associated Press or any other
news organization," Kaiser wrote. "The FBI may have intended this
false story as a trap for only one person. However, the individual could easily
have reposted this story to social networks, distributing to thousands of
people, under our name, what was essentially a piece of government
disinformation."
In a November opinion piece in the New York Times, FBI
Director James Comey revealed that an undercover FBI agent had also
impersonated an AP reporter, asking the suspect if he would be willing to
review a draft article about the bomb threats.
Comey described the tactic as "proper and
appropriate" under Justice Department guidelines in place at the time. He
said such a ruse would likely require higher-level approvals now than it did in
2007, but that it would still be lawful "and, in a rare case,
appropriate."
In a meeting with reporters the following month, Comey
left open the possibility that an agent might again pose as a journalist,
though he said such a tactic ought to be rare and "done carefully with significant
supervision, if it's going to be done."
AP's records request also seeks an accounting of how many
times since 2000 the FBI has impersonated media organizations to deliver
malicious software.
In a response to AP, the FBI indicated it might take
nearly two years to find and copy the requested records. AP's lawsuit asks a
federal judge to order the FBI to hand over the records.
Thursday's filing marked the second time this year that
AP has sued the federal government. In March, the news organization sued the
State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government
documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. The case,
involving unfulfilled FOIA requests dating back as long as five years, is
ongoing.
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Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker contributed to this
report.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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