City attorney tells journalist to unpublish articles about arrest report

A San Francisco city attorney, in a letter on Oct. 3, 2024, directed independent journalist Jack Poulson to remove details of a tech CEO’s sealed arrest report from multiple articles and to “refrain” from publishing the materials further. The journalist was later sued for $25 million by the tech executive, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Chronicle reported that the executive, Maury Blackman, was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence in 2021. He was not ultimately charged, and his arrest report was sealed from public view in 2022.

Poulson — who runs the nonprofit Tech Inquiry and publishes a newsletter on Substack — wrote an article about the arrest on Sept. 14, 2023, and posted a copy of the arrest report itself. He later wrote about subsequent attempts to pressure him to take down the article and “forensically unmask” his sources.

In September 2024, Poulson was sent a “demand for removal of sealed document and information related to sealed document” from David Marek, an attorney representing Blackman. The letter threatened legal action if the journalist didn’t delete the sealed report and the articles about it.

San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Jennifer Choi then sent letters first to Substack and later to Poulson informing them that under California law it is illegal to share information relating to a sealed arrest, punishable by a fine of $500 to $2,500.

“We expect that you will immediately remove the Incident Report and its contents from Substack and ensure that the index to postings no longer allows for the Incident Report to be viewed or downloaded,” Choi wrote. “Finally, please refrain from publishing this material in the future.”

Choi did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project, told the Chronicle that the Supreme Court has made it clear that the Constitution protects journalists from punishment for publishing legally obtained information.

“Journalists are entitled to publish documents that they lawfully obtained, specifically government documents,” FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern said. “Unless the city wants to take the position that a sealed arrest report is more sensitive than national security or (identifying) victims of terrible crimes, I don’t think they are in good standing.”

The city has not taken legal action against Poulson, the Chronicle reported. But Marek filed a lawsuit against the journalist, Tech Inquiry, Substack and Amazon Web Services, believed to be on Blackman’s behalf. The suit alleges Poulson’s articles damaged the unnamed plaintiff’s employment prospects and reputation among family, friends and business associates.