New York Times writer James Risen claims in a court affidavit that the government has monitored his phone calls in an effort to identify his confidential sources. “I have learned from an individual who testified before a grand jury in this District that was examining my reporting about the domestic wiretapping program that the Government had shown this individual copies of telephone records relating to calls made to and from me,” he wrote in a June 21 affidavit sent to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Risen is the guy who broke the story about NSA snooping and got a Pulitzer for it. The government seems like it has been after him ever since.
Risen made this new claim as the Justice Department continues its effort to force Risen to identify a former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, as his source for a chapter in Risen’s 2006 book “State of War.” A chapter in that book alleges the agency tried to leak the Iranians faulty nuclear weapon blueprints, but the Iranians figured it out. The agency was pretty embarrassed.
This is the third time the government has subpoenaed Risen in this case.
Risen references a May 2006 ABC News piece that claimed “phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.”
Risen says in his affidavit that he thinks ABC News was right.
