Judge Holds Catherine Herridge in Contempt, Orders Fines Until She Reveals Sources
Unbelievable. This is scary.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington held veteran investigative Catherine Herridge in contempt and ordered a fine of $800 a day until she reveals her sources for a 2017 story.
Cooper claimed he “recognizes the paramount importance of a free press in our society.” He also claimed he understands that confidential sources are vital to investigative journalism.
Uh huh.
Cooper’s excuse is that “the court ‘also has its own role to play in upholding the law and safeguarding judicial authority.’”
Cooper wrote in his order: “Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she is not permitted to flout a federal court’s order with impunity.”
The fiasco centers around Yanping Chen, the subject of Herridge’s story at Fox News in 2017. Herridge’s investigation examined alleged ties between Yen and her husband, J. Davidson Frame’s tax-payer-funded school, the University of Management and Technology in Rosslyn, VA, to the Chinese military.
FBI sources revealed the information to Herridge, including other information that troubled the DOJ, Pentagon, ICE, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS):
In December 2012, the FBI made two very public raids of UMT and the northern Virginia home of university president Yanping Chen Frame and its academic dean, her husband J. Davidson Frame. Documents reviewed by Fox News show it was a counter-intelligence case, known as a “200d,” one of the most highly sensitive categories for a federal probe.
Photos, exclusively obtained by Fox News, appear to show Chen as a young officer in the People’s Liberation Army, the military wing of China’s communist party. Another photo shows Frame saluting his wife, Chen, who is holding a uniform. Three independent experts said it was a Chinese military colonel’s uniform.
Yet since those FBI raids, UMT has continued to collect more than $6 million from Defense Department tuition assistance programs as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs through the post-9/11 GI bill.
Stephen Rhoads recruited vets for UMT. He became a whistleblower and worked with the FBI on the case.
But other information came from unnamed sources, including photographs of Chen and information from her immigration and naturalization forms:
Chen sued the FBI and Justice Department in 2018, accusing the government of violating the Privacy Act — which prohibits the public disclosure of private information about individuals without their consent. Chen’s lawsuit says both her personal and professional life were upended amid a wave of negative media attention after the leak, leading to hate mail and death threats.
An attorney for Chen, Andrew Phillips, said the Privacy Act is meant to guard against government officials selectively leaking information about an American’s citizen’s private life “to smear reputations or score political points.”
“Such misconduct should not be without recourse just because a rogue government official happens to launder his or her wrongdoing via a journalist,” Phillips said in an email. “Today’s ruling is an important one to ensure that government officials can be held to account for outrageous abuses of power.”
Herridge refused to name her sources when asked under oath in September despite a judge order to do so: “My understanding is that the courts have ruled that in order to seek further judicial review in this case, I must now decline the order, and respectfully I am invoking my First Amendment rights in declining to answer the question.”
Herridge has long been a respected investigative journalist at Fox News and CBS News. She has always faced the wrath of the left when she exposed anything negative about Democrats.
The wrath grew when she went to CBS News, which used to be the home of Sheryl Attkisson, who helped expose Operation Fast & Furious. Attkisson eventually left in 2014 due to the organization’s liberal bias.
Attkisson, who worked at CBS since 1993, also investigated Republican administrations. Nothing bothered people until she continued doing her job during President Obama’s administration.
Herridge worked at Fox News from 1996 to 2019. She joined CBS News, where she continued to do her investigation reporting.
In 2020, the left roared when Herridge reported then-acting DNU Richard Grenell notified Congress of the declassified unmasking list. It included many Obama officials. As Mike wrote, the list said “then-Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, ‘submitted requests to the National Security Agency at any point between 8 November 2016 and 31 January 2017, to unmask the identity of former National Security Advisor’ Michael Flynn.”
CBS News laid off Herridge and others in February 2024.
But CBS News wasn’t finished with Herridge. The network seized her confidential files despite knowing she had this battle with Chen.
Herridge worked on the Hunter Biden laptop story for CBS. I don’t believe in coincidences.
The network took her files, computers, and records. It included information on confidential sources. Professor Jonathan Hurley wrote:
The position of CBS has alarmed many, including the union, as an attack on free press principles by one of the nation’s most esteemed press organizations.
I have spoken confidentially with current and former CBS employees who have stated that they could not recall the company ever taking such a step before. One former CBS journalist said that many employees “are confused why [Herridge] was laid off, as one of the correspondents who broke news regularly and did a lot of original reporting.”
That has led to concerns about the source of the pressure. He added that he had never seen a seizure of records from a departing journalist, and that the move had sent a “chilling signal” in the ranks of CBS.
Thankfully, the public, media, and Republicans in Congress made enough noise. CBS News returned everything to Herridge.
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Comments
Few & far between but I am glad there are some journalists that are objective and have some integrity 🙂
In light of her recent firing & CBS’ holding of her property, I’m inclined to believe that there are some heavy hitters going after her.
And the Judge knew that CBS would not be paying the fine.
DC Judge, too. Typical.
“ordered a fine of $800 a day”
Or roughly Gov. Newsom’s daily dinner tab.
Always encrypt important private info.
Always have multiple locations where important data is stored.
Never put your passwords somewhere they can be easily hacked (like online).
Do not use biometrics to protect your information/data. The Fourth Amendment protects the password in your head, but not the print on the end of your finger or your eyeball.
Random downvoter?
Or did someone disagree with my comment?
Probably JR, who downvotes any intelligent comment.
Maybe Rags using two identities?
“Never put your passwords somewhere they can be easily hacked (like online).”
Yeah, from your mouth to the ears of the password management app people… please?
The original version of 1Password allowed one to sync categories of passwords between your own computers and phones (and those of your family) with a cable or WiFi. Now it’s all, “You have to have a paid account with us, and we keep it for you on our cloud, all encrypted, of course!” Yeah, today’s encrypted data is tomorrow’s Drudge headline.
I’m still using the older version… but it’s suffering from serious data rot.
We have a number of laws that prevent federal authorities from leaking information to the press. From the Pentagon Papers to today, it appears that the courts are far more willing to go after the press that publishes the leaks rather than the federal officials who leak the information.
A cynic would say that most of these prosecutions are nothing more than an attempt to remind the press that the only leaks they should print are the ones they’re told to print…
I believe there is an actual ruling or law that says specifically that a journal that prints information leaked by the government cannot be held criminally responsible for it, only the original leaker.
True, way back with the Pentagon Papers.
No. The Pentagon Papers case only said that the NYT couldn’t be prevented in advance from publishing the papers; there was nothing preventing the government from prosecuting the NYT after the fact.
After a lot of research on the subject, I’m recommending BitWarden for passwords etc. They have an effective “zero-knowledge” infrastructure and good, cross-platform, sync.
VeraCrypt for full disk encryption.
Tried porting that to my server. Hopelessly opaque, could never get it to work on MacOS, and I spent my career doing this sort of thing.
Nothing but the Truth (2008) is the model. Reporterette sent to jail for contempt for not revealing source.
Did the judge citing Herridge issue it speaking Russian and writing it in Cyrillic?
The Dhimmi-crat activist masquerading as a “judge,” respects a “free press” — just not when that press is overtly critical or scrutinizing of prominent Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks, and/or, paints Dhimmi-crats in a negative light.
The “judge’s” conduct, here, is right out of Stalin’s Soviet Union, or, Mao’s (or, contemporary) China.
You’ll never guess who officiated the wedding of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to his wife, a former Clinton Administration lawyer?
Merrick Garland
We’re living in the prologue of a dystopian novel.
“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it!” — George Carlin
In addition to being one of the funniest men in US history, Carlin was, of course, a rabid liberal. But, he was also a tremendous fan and defender of language, specifically the inherent right of the individually to use language to express their feelings and ideas the way they choose to do so. I would love to know how Carlin, if he were still alive, would have tackled woke culture and its fascist assault on language.
Suggested response to the court:
“Talk to CBS, Your Honor. CBS stole my records when they fired me, including my confidential source list. What they returned to me did not include that source list. I’ve been an investigative reporter for almost thirty years. I do not remember all the details, including the sources I spoke with and who told me what for this particular story from six years ago.”
Talk to CBS? The Whitehouse not only told CBS to fire her because she was getting too much information on the Biden Corruption but also suggested they seize all her records which they promptly copied and sent to the FBI to go after the enemies of the Regime.
Use the Chrissy Wray defense – I don’t recall.. It worked for Christy a lot! Hundreds of times.
I think the issue is moot because the government already got information about her sources from CBS’s seizure of her files and computers. Now, it’s simply another case of punishing a truth-teller.
She should just say her source was James Comey. He gets a pass on spilling classified information, plus he won’t remember.
If she had a single interview with anyone inside (and supporting) the system during the course of events, start naming them as her sources.
This country is finished if these Marxist retain power in 2024.
I agree. The damage done by another term of crime boss, Biden, occupying a bed in the White House geriatric ward will be incalculable and irreparable.
As things stand, President Trump is going to have a massive amount of doo-doo to clean up, left behind by the Dhimmi-crat toddlers, when he begins his second term.
You know, I frankly don’t believe he’s up to it.
In history, the classic formula for a dictator involves the election of a “strong leader” after a period of rampant, heinous corruption and weakness. I never fully understood the dynamics, but I see them in real time now. The only way to clean up this corruption without getting slow-walked to ineffectiveness by experts is with blood and steel — both wielded with much less than liberal values of mercy. And the same guy who could do that “for” you, is not one you want ruling the country afterwards. (Trump is not that man.)
It’s like the old management trope of hiring a hatchet man when you need to fire 10% of your employees… then the only unpleasant task left for you to do personally is to fire the hatchet man when it’s all over. But you better put on your big boy pants and fire him.
Let’s try to keep some optimism. 🙂
But, yes, I agree that the challenge is daunting.
Nice of CBS to return her computer and files after the alphabet agencies copied every single shred of information first.
Say a prayer for Katherine, she can use it.
Oh but protecting the Feds and their Coup d’etat and your good to go.
JoeBama V1.0 went on an unmasking frenzy in 2016. Chen and her hubby got raided by the FIB. No doubt the neighbors know all about it.
But sue, sue, sue cause FOX published some photo of Chen as a CCP stooge. There are no secrets in DC. And there’s no compelling interest for the court to know herridge’s confidential sources.
It’s just blatant persecution and intimidation.
The judge says Herridge can’t flout a federal court’s authority. Okay, judge, NOW DO BIDEN.
Biden hasn’t done that. Biden has not violated any court order. If he did, he’d be in serious trouble. I don’t think a judge could actually put him in a cell, because of the separation of powers, but anyone else would be.
A court order, a court ruling. Potato, tomahto.
He hasn’t defied any court ruling either.
Of course they returned the materials, or so they claim. The point of seizing them was to expose whistleblowers to CBS’ political masters, not deprive Herridge of them.
It is neither unbelievable nor scary. On the contrary, the judge is 100% right, and there should be more such stories. This should be so routine that reporters know better than to try thumbing their noses at the law and justice and setting themselves up as above the law.
What disappoints me is that even this judge pretends that reporters deserve to be treated differently from everyone else, he just draws the line at absolute immunity from the law that binds every other person. He wants reporters to only be nobility, not royalty. But that’s not enough for them.
Let’s get this straight: The first amendment does not give the news industry any privileges whatsoever. A reporter is no more important than a carpenter or a telephone sanitizer, and has no more rights. The whole idea that the “freedom of the press” refers to the news industry, and gives its members a constitutional role and special protection, is a perversion that must be rooted out utterly. It’s exactly as wrong as the idea that the second amendment protects only national guardsmen.
The freedom of the press means the freedom with which every single human being is endowed by her Creator, to publish whatever she likes. It is the exact equivalent of the freedom of speech, but for publication. Together these two freedoms are more conveniently referred to as the freedom of expression. Reporters have that freedom only to the same extent as each of us do.
And each of us do not have the freedom to refuse our testimony to litigants who need it to make their cases. It is a fundamental duty to testify whenever you have information that a litigant needs. That duty is so fundamental to an orderly society that it’s even in the Bible.
Now the courts have created certain privileges, recognizing that compelling testimony from some people would do so much damage that it would outweigh the cost of losing valuable testimony. So we have attorney-client privilege, doctor-patient privilege, confessional privilege, spousal privilege. We do not (at least at the federal level) have “reporter privilege”, but the reporter trade refuses to recognize or accept that, and chucks a hissy fit on every rare occasion when one of them is ordered to do the right thing.
They think they’re above the rest of us. They even call themselves a “fourth estate’, although not one in ten of them could tell you what the first three are. It’s a pity it’s so rare to see them made to face the truth that they’re not special.
“This should be so routine that reporters know better than to try thumbing their noses at the law and justice and setting themselves up as above the law.”
Absolutely! Who do they think they are? Hunter? Hillary? Holder? Comey? Clapper? Brennan? Strzok? Obama’s VP?
No one (who isn’t in the Big Club) is above the law!!
The problem is that they think they are the Big Club. None of the people you named claim to be above the law. They have broken the law with impunity, but they deny having done so, because they acknowledge that they are indeed bound by the law. The news industry openly declares that it is above the law. That makes it worse than them.
Isn’t it odd that nobody seems to be asking about the original case Herridge reported on? What happened to the FBI raid, the counter-intelligence case, etc.? Why is this institution still receiving federal funding and having federal research assistants with classified access,,, whoops, I meant “students”?
Because lacking any other explanation for the Fed’s silence and their letting this case continue into sensitive areas, this ‘law suit’ seems like it could well be a big distraction operation. Not something I would put past the Feds to set up in order to cover some incompetence/malfeasance.
I hate it that what used to be conspiracy theory stuff has entered the realm of the quite possible.
Svetlana Lokhova vs. Chen
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/15/appeals-court-rejects-libel-suit-affair-flynn-481868
Another case where the Governments personal court system goes against the people. The DC court system must be abolished, the judges forced into retirement and future cases dispersed to federal courts far away from the capital city.