{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-demands-answers-from-garland-after-doj-raids-journalists-home", "Cotton Demands Answers from Garland after DOJ Raids Journalist\u2019s Home", "2021-11-15", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: James Arnold or Mary Collins Atkinson (202) 224-2353\n\nNovember 15, 2021\n\nCotton Demands Answers from Garland after DOJ Raids Journalist\u2019s Home\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding answers about the Department of Justice\u2019s investigation into the disappearance of Ashley Biden\u2019s diary.\n\nIn part, Senator Cotton wrote, \u201cThe Department of Justice follows rules and regulations when investigating members of the news media. The regulations state the Department of Justice \u2018views the use of certain law enforcement tools, including . . . search warrants to seek information from, or records of, non-consenting members of the news media as extraordinary measures, not standard investigatory practices.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cGiven the execution of these search warrants were not \u2018standard investigatory practices,\u2019 I have concerns about the origins of this investigation, the motivations of the investigations, and tactics used by your Department,\u201d he continued.\n\nText of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nThe Honorable Merrick Garland\n\nU.S. Department of Justice\n\n950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW\n\nWashington, DC 20530-0001\n\nDear Attorney General Garland,\n\nI am writing regarding recent reports of search warrants executed by the FBI on members of the news media in the course of investigating the alleged theft of Ashley Biden\u2019s diary. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that the FBI had executed search warrants on the homes of several individuals connected to media outlet Project Veritas, including its founder, journalist James O\u2019Keefe.\n\nThe Department of Justice follows rules and regulations when investigating members of the news media. The regulations state the Department of Justice \u201cviews the use of certain law enforcement tools, including . . . search warrants to seek information from, or records of, non-consenting members of the news media as extraordinary measures, not standard investigatory practices.\u201d\n\nGiven the execution of these search warrants were not \u201cstandard investigatory practices,\u201d I have concerns about the origins of this investigation, the motivations of the investigations, and tactics used by your Department.\n\nPlease respond to the following questions and requests by November 19, 2021:\n\n1. According to court filings, the crimes predicating the search warrants fall primarily under the National Stolen Property Act (NSPA), which, inter alia, criminalizes the transport of stolen property across state lines.\n\nPlease provide any case where federal prosecutors charged conspiracy to transport stolen goods and/or receipt of stolen goods with respect to a journalist receiving information from a source and describe how that comports with the First Amendment protections articulated in Bartnicki v. Vopper.\n\nPlease provide all cases where federal prosecutors charged NSPA where a personal effect such as a diary had been stolen in an isolated incident.\n\nPlease provide the search warrants for any cellphones collected from O\u2019Keefe and his associates as well as the supporting applications.\n\nPlease provide all federal prosecutions where prosecutors charged transportation of stolen property where a good had been abandoned by the complaining owner.\n\nThe NSPA has a jurisdictional requirement that the property stolen have a value of $5,000 or more. Please provide the process in which you assessed Ashley Biden\u2019s diary as having a fair market value of $5,000 or more.\n\n2. Please provide a detailed description of the steps you took to comply with the Department of Justice regulations governing obtaining information from journalists, including steps taken to comply with your July memo broadly prohibiting acquiring journalists\u2019 records through compulsory process. If such regulations were not followed, please provide a detailed description about why you failed to follow these procedures.\n\n3. Court records show that reporters from the New York Times contacted James O\u2019Keefe for comments very shortly after federal agents searched the home of an associate and O\u2019Keefe\u2019s home. Please provide all communications between employees of the Department of Justice and the New York Time concerning the investigation into the disappearance of Ashley Biden\u2019s diary. Please describe any actions the Department has taken to investigate the leaks from the Department of Justice to the New York Times.\n\n4. Please provide all communications between officials from the Department of Justice and the White House concerning the investigation into the disappearance of Ashley Biden\u2019s diary. Did anyone at the White House have advance notice of the search warrants for the cellphones of journalists affiliated with Project Veritas?\n\nI look forward to your prompt response regarding this important matter.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-demands-answers-from-garland-after-doj-raids-journalists-home"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.38394208624959, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}