Appeals court to hear case of reporter alleging surveillance
January 31, 2019
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — When Sharyl Attkisson first began hearing clicking sounds on her phone and her computers started turning on and off in the middle of the night, she thought it was a technical glitch that could be easily fixed.
Attkisson, then a longtime investigative reporter for CBS News, didn’t suspect anything more until her sources in the intelligence community suggested that the government might be spying on her because of critical stories she had done.
Attkisson alleged in a 2015 lawsuit that former Attorney General Eric Holder, former Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, and unnamed federal agents conducted unauthorized surveillance of her home and electronic devices in an attempt to determine who was leaking confidential information to her.
A federal judge dismissed Attkisson’s lawsuit, finding that resolving the allegations would overstep the court’s authority because it “would require inquiry into sensitive Executive Branch discussions and decisions.”
Attkisson’s appeal will be heard Tuesday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Attkisson said she, her husband and daughter first noticed unusual activity with their electronic devices in 2011, after she did a story on Operation Fast and Furious, a failed sting operation in which federal agents allowed firearms dealers to sell weapons to straw purchasers in an attempt to trace the guns back to Mexican drug cartels.