United States Fourth Circuit

In a criminal case involving a former CIA agent who has been indicted for the unauthorized retention and disclosure of national defense information, in violation of the Espionage Act, the district court's evidentiary rulings are: 1) reversed in part and remanded, where the district court erred in holding that the journalist had a reporter's privilege that entitled him to refuse to testify at trial concerning the source and scope of the classified national defense information illegally disclosed to him; 2) reversed in part and remanded, where the district court erred in suppressing the testimony of two government witnesses as a sanction for the government's late disclosure of impeachment material; and 3) affirmed in part and reversed in part, as to the order involving the true names and identities of several covert CIA officers, where the district court abused its discretion in ordering that the jury be given a key with the operatives' true names, however, defendant and his counsel are permitted to receive the key with the operatives' true names.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/19/2013
• Published 07/19/2013

Judges

• TRAXLER, GREGORY

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel