Online reporter subpoenaed in case against tax protester

By The Associated Press

03.13.01

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A reporter for Wired News has been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of a tax protester charged with stalking and threatening two federal agents.

Declan McCullagh, who runs the online news service's Washington office, said March 8 he would likely fight the subpoena.

"I don't think a journalist should be testifying against a source," McCullagh said. "I'm talking to folks to try to figure it out. I have not ruled out the possibility of jail time."

He termed the subpoena an attempt to "intimidate reporters from serious investigations."

McCullagh received the subpoena March 8 while covering the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Cambridge. Two Treasury Department officials handed him the subpoena after a session on Carnivore, the FBI's e-mail surveillance tool.

The subpoena orders him to appear at U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Wash., on April 2, the start of the trial of James Dalton Bell, of Vancouver, Wash. McCullagh also was ordered to bring two articles he wrote about the case.

McCullagh said he had no problem affirming the accuracy of the published articles, but feared prosecutors were also seeking his statements on confidential and other unpublished materials.

Prosecutors accuse Bell of spying on IRS agent Jeff Gordon, stealing his mail and sending him an e-mail that threatened the agent's son. According to court documents, Bell also left threatening notes against Mike McNall, an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Bell pleaded guilty in 1997 to obstructing IRS officials and using false Social Security numbers to hide income.

He also admitted writing "Assassination Politics," an online essay about creating a system to encourage killing government officials. To avoid being traced, individuals would use digital cash and anonymous online messages to reward assassins acting on their own initiative. Bell later published an Internet article suggesting the idea was more of a joke than a serious proposal.

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