USA Today refuses to give FBI data on which readers accessed story about agents’ killing

‘Being forced to tell the government who reads what on our websites is a clear violation of the First Amendment’

The FBI is seeking records of who read a USA Today article on a fatal shooting of two agents (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The publisher of USA Today is fighting a legal battle against the FBI over data on who read an online story about a deadly shooting in Florida that left two agents dead.

In April the outlet’s parent company Gannett was served with a subpoena from the bureau to hand over internet addresses and mobile phone numbers of individuals who accessed the article in a 35-minute window on the day of the attack in February, according to Politico which first reported on the filing.

The shooting near Fort Lauderdale resulted in the deaths of two FBI agents as well as injuries to three others when they were serving a warrant for alleged child sex abuse image offences.  The gunman later died at the scene.

The FBI stated that the subpoena for information on readers who accessed the piece between 8.03pm and 8.38pm “relates to a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI” but did not elaborate on why the data was requested.

But on 28 May representatives for Gannett filed a movement to quash the subpoena in the US District Court in Washington, claiming that the bureau’s request violated the media’s and the readers’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. The filing was made public on Wednesday.

Legal representatives Charles Tobin and Maxwell Mishkin wrote: “A government demand for records that would identify specific individuals who read specific expressive materials, like the Subpoena at issue here, invades the First Amendment rights of both publisher and reader, and must be quashed accordingly.”

They added that the “unconstitutional demand ... failed to demonstrate compliance with the United States Attorney General’s regulations for subpoenas to the press.”

They cited several cases for precedent including a ruling in 1998 that denied investigators access to Monica Lewinsky’s purchase records from DC bookstore Kramerbooks & Afterwords as they attempted to trace presents allegedly bought for President Bill Clinton.

The lawyers also quoted a Supreme Court ruling that read: “Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publications, the free press as we know it disappears.”

In a statement, Maribel Perez Wadsworth, the publisher of USA Today and president of the USA Today Network, said: “We intend to fight the subpoena’s demand for identifying information about individuals who viewed the USA Today news report. Being forced to tell the government who reads what on our websites is a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

Representatives for the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.