AP files lawsuit against DOJ over fake news story

The Associated Press is bringing a lawsuit against the Department of Justice seeking information about the government’s use of a fake news story to catch a teenager suspected of calling in bomb threats. Along with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the AP asked a district court to force the department to turn over records regarding the FBI’s impersonation of a journalist and creation of a fake story in 2007. Reporters from the two organizations submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests soon after news of the sting came to light in October but have not received any records in response, they said.

"We cannot overstate how damaging it is for federal agents to pose as journalists," said Katie Townsend, the litigation director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “This practice undermines the credibility of the independent news media, and should not be tolerated. Yet while the public clearly has a strong, compelling interest in knowing more about the FBI’s use of this tactic, the FBI seems determined to withhold that information,” she added. “We have been left with no choice but to look to the court for relief." In October 2014, federal documents revealed that an FBI agent had pretended to be an AP reporter in order to target a teenager suspected of making bomb threats to a local high school in 2007. The agent fabricated a draft of an AP story and placed it on a website made to look like The Seattle Times in order to plant malicious software on the suspect’s computer.