Secrecy Around FBI Raid Against Florida-Based Journalist Should End
Coalition urges United States appeals court to force Justice Department to reveal basis for investigation against journalist Timothy Burke
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A coalition of civil liberties and press freedom organizations in the United States demanded that a federal appeals court force the U.S. Justice Department to be transparent about why an FBI raid was authorized against Florida-based journalist Timothy Burke.
The organizations also urged the appeals court to instruct the government to return Burke’s property because the FBI still has media equipment and files that they seized from Burke.
On May 8, 2023, as recounted by the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Burke “awoke to the sound of FBI agents banging on the door of his Tampa home with a search warrant. By the time the raid ended approximately 10 hours later, agents had seized virtually all of the electronics in his newsroom.”
The search warrant that was unsealed a few weeks later indicated that prosecutors were investigating alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Wiretap Act, and the Tampa Bay Times reported that the FBI raid stemmed from accusations from Fox News that Burke had “hacked” into video livestreams.
Read the full article at The Dissenter.
Whether he is a "journalist" or not, he has the same rights!
They are illegally holding his property for going on 8 months. How nice of them.