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ACLU Counts 4 More Secret Records Demands in WikiLeaks Probe
May 20, 2011 |
Categories: WikiLeaks
An examination of case numbers of entirely sealed dockets in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, suggests to the ACLU that there were four Justice Department records demands issued in the same manner as a December 2010 demand sent to Twitter, which seeks information on three current and former WikiLeaks associates.
On Thursday, the ACLU, in conjunction with the EFF, asked a federal judge to open those dockets to the public.
“[T]here is still no publicly available docket with individual docket entries that gives the public notice that any applications or orders granting or denying those applications, or any challenges to such applications or orders, have been filed under seal,” the ACLU wrote in an appeal Thursday. “Regardless of whether it is appropriate to maintain certain documents under seal, the absence of a public docket–somewhere–containing docket entries identifying any other applications, orders, motions, or other documents is simply not permissible.”
The Justice Department has been seeking transaction records on the Twitter accounts since December under 18 USC 2703(d), a 1994 amendment to the Stored Communications Act that allows law enforcement access to non-content internet records, such as transaction information, without demonstrating the “probable cause” needed for a full-blown search warrant.
A 2703(d) order is issued when prosecutors provide a judge with “specific and articulable facts” that show the information they seek is relevant and material to a criminal investigation. The people targeted in the records demand don’t themselves have to be suspected of criminal wrongdoing.
The targets of the Twitter-records demand are WikiLeaks’ official Twitter account, and the accounts of three people connected to the group: Seattle coder and activist Jacob Appelbaum; Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland’s parliament; and Dutch businessman Rop Gonggrijp. Jonsdottir and Gonggrijp helped WikiLeaks prepare the release of a classified U.S. Army video published last year as “Collateral Murder,” and Appelbaum is the group’s U.S. representative.
The records demand started as part of an ongoing grand jury investigation probing WikiLeaks for its high-profile leaks of classified U.S. material. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hasn’t challenged the demand for records pertaining to the organization’s feed, but the other three have been fighting the case with the help of the ACLU and the EFF. A decision on the Twitter-records demand is pending.
