November 22, 2013

The Washington Times | The Daily Caller

The Washington Times and Audrey Hudson have filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security, saying an agent from the Coast Guard Investigative Service took Hudson’s notes illegally, Kellan Howell reports.

Alex Pappas wrote about the raid last month in The Daily Caller: CGIS accompanied Maryland State Police on a search warrant of the home Hudson, a former Times reporter, shares with her husband, Paul Flanagan, “an ordinance technician for the Coast Guard in Baltimore,” Pappas wrote. According to the warrant, Pappas said, Flanagan is not allowed to own firearms because of a 1986 conviction for resisting arrest.

During the search, agents took papers including Hudson’s notes. Coast Guard spokesperson Carlos Diaz told Pappas “During the course of the search, the CGIS agent discovered government documents labeled FOUO – For Official Use Only (FOUO) – and LES – Law Enforcement Sensitive. The files that contained these documents were cataloged on the search warrant inventory and taken from the premises.” Flanagan picked up the papers after the feds said they were “obtained properly through the Freedom of Information Act.”

The Times’ filing says it believes “multiple federal agencies” had seen the seized material, which included “a memorandum from Hudson to an editor at The Washington Times outlining Hudson’s concern that some of her confidential sources were being retaliated against,” Howell writes.

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Andrew Beaujon reported on the media for Poynter from 2012 to 2015. He was previously arts editor at TBD.com and managing editor of Washington City…
Andrew Beaujon

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