First Amendment group sues DOJ over seizure of New York Times reporter's phone, email records

A CA-based First Amendment group is suing the Justice Department in federal court over the agency's seizure of phone and email records from Ali Watkins, a reporter at The New York Times. In a lawsuit filed Sept 19 in US District Court for the Northern District of California, First Amendment Coalition (FAC) alleged that the Justice Department had violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by withholding documents related to the seizure of Watkins's email and phone records. Watkins, at the time, covered national security for the Times. The group is challenging the DOJ's collection of Watkins's records for months without her knowledge or consent, consequently preventing her ability to contest the collections in court. "Based on what we know now, it appears the DOJ ignored or somehow bypassed its important procedures for collecting journalists’ records — we want to know if that’s the case and, if so, why,” said David Snyder, the group's executive director. Snyder added that the group filed two FOIA requests earlier in 2018 for documents related to Watkins's case, but said that FAC has been stonewalled by the Justice Department.