News Archive - May 2009

Joannides Lawsuit Poses Test for Obama FOIA Order

May 27, 2009: In a new article on the Talking Points Memo, former Washington Post reporter and author Jefferson Morley reports that in spite of President Obama's recent strengthening of FOIA law, the CIA continues to stonewall his efforts to gain access to the records of former CIA undercover officer George Joannides. The Joannides story is the subject of the MFF's short documentary, Withheld In Full - Morley V. CIA.

Evidence Tossed Out in Wecht Case

May 17, 2009: U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin has ruled that 29 boxes of evidence collected by FBI agents from Dr. Cyril Wecht's private office, along with all evidence gleaned from one of his secretary's laptop computers, are inadmissible in court, according to a story in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. The judge ruled that the boxes were not covered by search warrant and the warrent for the laptop was "patently overbroad." The U.S. attorney's office prosecuting the case has not said whether they will continue to prosecute Wecht on the fourteen counts of fraud and theft which haven't already been dropped, but the Tribune-Review noted that this action "crippled the government's chances of retrying Dr. Cyril H. Wecht on public corruption charges."