A reporter who was with Fox News when she reported on information provided by a confidential source is facing a contempt charge because she’s refusing to reveal the source’s identity despite a court order that she do so.
But Ms. Herridge, during a deposition after the order was handed down, “refused to answer questions regarding the identity of her confidential source(s) and other aspects of her reporting process and editorial decision-making,” lawyers for Yanping Chen, the scientist, said in a recent filing.
They asked the court to hold Ms. Herridge in contempt, a criminal charge that can bring jail time.
“With contempt proceedings now teed up, one of two outcomes appears likely: Either Herridge will be held in contempt in the near future and can immediately appeal that order, or, as sometimes occurs in these cases, the sources may release Herridge from the privilege rather than watch her undergo the consequences of contempt,” Judge Cooper, appointed under President Barack Obama, wrote in a ruling.
He was rejecting Ms. Herridge’s request to reconsider his earlier refusal to stay proceedings pending appeal.
Ms. Herridge hasn’t commented on the matter, and her deposition, taken in September, hasn’t been made public. Meanwhile, lawyers for Ms. Herridge didn’t respond to a request for comment. Fox News and CBS News also didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Ms. Herridge’s lawyers had said that the judge’s August order contained language indicating that he thought he was forced to require contempt before an appeal but that the court actually had the discretion to certify an appeal ahead of a contempt ruling.
“The court should exercise its discretion to avoid forcing Ms. Herridge to suffer a contempt sanction as the price for securing review of her First Amendment rights,” her lawyers said.
Judge Cooper said he knew he had discretion but was exercising it to reject Ms. Herridge’s motion because standard practice is to defer appellate proceedings until a person has defied an order and been held in contempt.
“The court thus makes clear what may have been murky before: Exercising its discretion, the court concludes that certification is not warranted in this case because Herridge can appeal a subsequent contempt order,” Judge Cooper said.
The case stems from three reports published by Fox News starting in 2017 that disclosed that the FBI had investigated Ms. Chen, a naturalized U.S. citizen who founded and owned a university attended by multiple U.S. military personnel. Ms. Chen was informed in 2016 that she wasn’t being charged.
The Department of Defense moved in 2018 to stop helping to pay the tuition of military members to attend Ms. Chen’s university. Ms. Chen sued the FBI, alleging that it or other government entities had leaked the previously private information to Ms. Herridge.
Judge Cooper has said that Ms. Chen’s “need for the requested evidence overcomes Herridge’s qualified First Amendment privilege.”
A number of press freedom groups have decried the rulings.
“Journalists are already under great pressure any time they face a legal demand to reveal a confidential source or other newsgathering material. If they can’t appeal an order requiring them to name a source without facing a potentially large fine or long jail sentence, some may think twice about continuing to resist.”
