National Briefing | Washington: Times Reporter Seeks Subpoena’s Withdrawal

Times Reporter Seeks Subpoena’s Withdrawal

A lawyer for James Risen, an author and a reporter for The New York Times, has asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to withdraw a subpoena requiring him to testify about a confidential source, in light of the Justice Department’s new guidelines for obtaining information from journalists in investigations. On July 19, a federal appeals court ruled that Mr. Risen must testify in the criminal trial of a former C.I.A. official, Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with leaking classified information. The case involves material published in Mr. Risen’s 2006 book, “State of War.” The ruling came a week after Mr. Holder released a report on “significant revisions” to Justice Department policies intended to “strengthen protections for members of the news media.” The amended guidelines call for tactics like subpoenas to e treated as “extraordinary measures” to be used as a “last resort,” noted David N. Kelley, Mr. Risen’s lawyer, in a letter to Mr. Holder. “We urge you to apply those principles to this case,” Mr. Kelley wrote. A spokesman for the Justice Department said it was “examining the next steps in the prosecution of this case.”