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28 June 2014

US Attorneys Persecuting James Risen

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/us/case-of-james-risen-times-reporter-poses-dilemma-for-justice-department.html

[Excerpts]

Activists for freedom of the press have been encouraged by some of the White House’s recent actions and talk. In May last year, Mr. Obama described leaks as dangerous but said he was “troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.”

The government is expected to resume its case soon against Mr. Sterling. If Mr. Risen refuses to testify, the Justice Department has options beyond seeking a prison sentence. It could ask the judge to fine Mr. Risen. Or it could agree to narrow the scope of questioning so that he would not be asked to identify his source.

Government lawyers could also try to avoid the issue altogether by pursuing a plea agreement with Mr. Sterling.

“The prosecutors who have invested so much in this probably want to charge ahead,” said Mr. Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. “It’s just a question of whether politics will put some brakes on them.”

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Excerpt from James Risen book which led to his persecution:

http://cryptome.org/0001/cia-merlin.htm

U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia - (Alexandria) CRIMINAL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:10-cr-00485-LMB-1 Case title: USA v. Sterling Date Filed: 12/22/2010 Plaintiff USA represented by William Michael Welch US Attorney's Office (Alexandria) 2100 Jamieson Avenue Alexandria, VA 22314 703-299-3700 Email: william.welch2@usdoj.gov LEAD ATTORNEY Andrew Peterson US Attorney's Office (Alexandria) 2100 Jamieson Avenue Alexandria, VA 22314 703-299-3700 Email: andy.peterson@usdoj.gov Barak Cohen US Attorney's Office (Alexandria-NA) 2100 Jamieson Avenue Alexandria, VA 22314 703-299-3700 Email: barak.cohen@usdoj.gov LEAD ATTORNEY James L. Trump United States Attorney's Office 2100 Jamieson Ave Alexandria, VA 22314 (703)299-3700 Email: jim.trump@usdoj.gov Timothy James Kelly US Attorney's Office (Alexandria) 2100 Jamieson Avenue Alexandria, VA 22314 703-299-3700 Email: Timothy.Kelly@usdoj.gov

William Michael Welch II http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/power-players/william-welch-obama-administrations-point-man-to-stop-leaks.php Welch, a 47-year-old litigator ... has spent his entire career in the Justice Department. Welch has earned a reputation among fellow prosecutors and defense attorneys as a tough-as-nails, determined litigator. But many of those same people also say he is often overly aggressive in deciding which cases to bring and how to prosecute them, and that his ambition has sometimes blinded him to the weaknesses in his cases. “There’s a fine line between being zealous and overly zealous,” says one defense attorney who has lost to Welch in court. “He crossed that line on several occasions.” Welch is now the administration’s point man in its historic anti-leaks campaign. He is prosecuting a former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, and he has subpoenaed James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter, to testify about whether Sterling was the source for the journalist’s book State of War, which revealed that the CIA may have botched classified operations against Iran. A federal judge is expected to rule soon on whether Risen will have to testify, and her decision could have broad implications for freedom of the press and journalists’ ability to protect the identity of their confidential sources. But while the cases now in Welch’s portfolio are among the Justice Department’s most high-profile, chasing leakers isn’t what he’s best known for: Currently, Welch is under criminal investigation for his handling of the prosecution of the late Alaska senator Ted Stevens. An investigation revealed that the government’s lawyers had failed to turn over information to Stevens’s attorneys that could have aided in his defense. In April 2009, attorney general Eric Holder dropped the charges against Stevens, and the judge in the case ordered a criminal contempt-of-court investigation into Welch and five other lawyers. The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility also began an ethics probe. Neither inquiry has been concluded. And while it has been reported that Welch merely oversaw the team of lawyers on the case, new information suggests he was directly involved in decisions about what information to turn over to Stevens’s attorneys and what to withhold. Welch stepped down as the Public Integrity Section chief in October 2009 and moved back to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he’d worked as an assistant US Attorney before coming to Washington. It could have been the end of his career in government. But one month later, Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, put Welch in charge of some of the most politically sensitive of the government’s leaks cases. Center, 433 10th Street NE, Washington, DC

Andrew Peterson http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae/news/2010/06/20100608petersonnr.html Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Peterson was an attorney for the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel, where he received the 2010 Intelligence Community Junior Lawyer of the Year Award. At the CIA, he represented the Agency in federal court, provided guidance on laws regulating CIA intelligence gathering, and briefed senior Agency leadership on pending litigation issues. June 8, 2010 ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, today announced he has hired two prosecutors to fill positions in the Terrorism and National Security Unit and the Major Crimes Unit. Andrew Peterson has been hired to join the Terrorism and National Security Unit and help the Office fulfill the Department of Justice’s highest priority: To protect the American people from national security threats. The Eastern District of Virginia has traditionally played a lead role in the prosecution of significant terrorist and spy cases, including those of Zacarias Moussaoui, Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, among many others. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Peterson was an attorney for the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel, where he received the 2010 Intelligence Community Junior Lawyer of the Year Award. At the CIA, he represented the Agency in federal court, provided guidance on laws regulating CIA intelligence gathering, and briefed senior Agency leadership on pending litigation issues. Peterson clerked for the Honorable Kenneth M. Karas of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He also was a research associate and a member of the board of advisors for the Center on Law and Security at New York University (NYU) School of Law in New York. He received his juris doctorate from NYU School of Law and his bachelor’s degree in global studies and Asian languages and literature from the University of Iowa.

Barak Cohen (Not clear if Cohen is still involved in the case.)

James L. Trump 3607 Woodhill Place, Fairfax, VA

Timothy James Kelly 718 Tamarack Way (In distance beyond)