PPSA Files Freedom of Information Act Request on Secret Surveillance of Guardian Reporter, Project Veritas

​The Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability today announced the filing of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking documents from U.S. government agencies regarding secret subpoenas issued on the phone records of Stephanie Kirchgaessner, U.S.-based investigative reporter for The Guardian, as well as warrants and subpoenas issued to Microsoft and the email accounts it provides to the activist journalists of Project Veritas.
 
The Washington, D.C., based Kirchgaessner has long irritated officialdom with her disclosures on stories ranging from the sinister misuses of Pegasus surveillance technology to stories involving surveillance overreach in the United States. James O’Keefe of Project Veritas suffered a pre-dawn raid on his home and confiscation of his cellphone when Department of Justice officials were seeking to track down the chain of custody in the missing diary of Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter. Late last year, federal Judge Analisa Torres was forced to order the Department of Justice to stop the extraction and review of the contents of O’Keefe’s phone, much of which involved stories having nothing to do with the Biden diary.
 
“There have been many recent reports that agencies under administrations of both parties are using secret subpoenas and warrants to surveil the phone and email records of journalists,” said Gene Schaerr, PPSA general counsel. “Investigators are getting far too comfortable in fishing through the records of journalists. This practice chills free expression and threatens to criminalize customary journalistic practice.”