Attorney General Ashcroft personally approved your subpoena, and that of another
reporter who published admissions by James Dalton Bell.
The Government is not seeking any source material, notes, or other unpublished
material from you by virtue of this subpoena. The limited purpose of the subpoena is
to have you review two of your published articles, acknowledge your authorship, review
several of the statements which you attributed to Bell in your articles, and have you
verify that he in fact told you those things. That's all. We're only interested in
having you testify about statements of his that you published. If your subpoena could
have been avoided, it would have been. Unfortunately, the Federal Rules of Evidence
do not permit a news article to be admitted into evidence for these purposes unless
the person who wrote it can attest to its authorship and the accuracy of its content.
This must be done in open court, at trial, and cannot be accomplished by affidavit,
unless the defendant is willing to stipulate that your appearance can be avoided and
that your articles can be admitted into evidence witho!
ut!
your appearance as a foundation witness. Mr. Bell is not interested in any such
stipulations. I regret any inconvenience that a trip to Tacoma may cause.
I am extremely sensitive to the intrusiveness of any subpoena and the potential
negative impact that press subpoenas can have on the news gathering function. The
subpoena that has been served on you, is, in my experience, as minimally intrusive as
any such subpoena can be.
Robb London
Assistant United States Attorney
Western District of Washington
