DC reporter subpoenaed by Republican fundraiser over leaked documents

McClatchy reporter Ben Wieder was subpoenaed on March 23, 2022, for documents in a federal suit filed by Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy against agents of the state of Qatar, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Broidy had filed a separate subpoena against The Associated Press in connection with the leak of his emails to various news outlets in early 2018. In both the AP’s and Wieder’s cases, the subpoenas were ultimately dropped.

Broidy had initially filed suit March 2018 in U.S. District Court in California, accusing Qatar, a public relations firm it had employed and the firm’s CEO of hacking into email accounts and computer servers starting in January 2018. He alleged they had stolen his emails and documents and distributed them to the media.

Broidy cited articles published in multiple outlets at the time about his anti-Qatar work on behalf of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia that appeared to rely on his anonymously leaked emails.

The Associated Press also reported that beginning in February 2018, a number of news organizations started to receive “anonymously leaked batches of Broidy’s emails and documents that had apparently been hacked.”

Broidy subpoenaed phone records from the PR firm’s CEO, revealing that he had spoken repeatedly to multiple journalists who then wrote about Broidy. One of these journalists was Wieder, who the records revealed had spoken with the CEO twice in January 2018 and began publishing articles about Broidy the next month.

In May 2018, Broidy subpoenaed the AP, demanding any leaked copies of his emails in their possession and documents that could identify the source of the leak. The outlet does not appear to have complied with the subpoena by the time that suit was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction in September.

Broidy subsequently filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the same public relations firm and CEO. He subpoenaed Wieder in March 2022 for all documents, including reporting materials, and for communications produced between January to August 2018 concerning any of the parties in the suit, the state of Qatar or any associates.

The subpoena also demanded any documents related to services Wieder had provided to Qatar or payments he had received from the state or its agents between June 2017 and December 2019.

On April 25, 2022, Wieder filed a motion to quash the subpoena, arguing that the documents requested “go to the heart of the reporter’s privilege: confidential sources, interview notes, story pitches to editors, drafts of stories, and an unending list of other privileged newsgathering materials that Plaintiffs have no right – nor need – to inspect.” He wrote that his records were protected by both the First Amendment and Washington’s Free Flow of Information Act.

Wieder also argued that his notes and interviews had nothing to do with the alleged hacking and distribution of Broidy’s records, and that the insinuation that he had received payments from Qatar was “offensive.”

On June 23, Broidy and Wieder filed a joint stipulation to withdraw the subpoena and the motion to quash. Wieder was not subpoenaed again in the suit.