{
  "id": 61,
  "slug": "2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator",
  "title": "United States search warrant names Fox News reporter James Rosen a possible co-conspirator in a leak case",
  "occurred_on": "2013-05-20",
  "occurred_on_precision": "day",
  "ended_on": null,
  "jurisdiction": "US",
  "country": "US",
  "continent": "north-america",
  "level": "national",
  "type": null,
  "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
  "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
  "issue_of_the_day": "A 2009 Fox News report, sourced to a State Department analyst, forecasting North Korea's response to new United Nations sanctions.",
  "outcome": "sustained",
  "outcome_on": "2013-07-12",
  "outcome_note": "The warrant was not withdrawn from the record; Kim pleaded guilty in 2014 and Rosen was never charged. Holder's July 2013 guidelines later restricted subpoenas naming reporters as suspects.",
  "granularity": "anchor",
  "era": "2010s",
  "summary": "A 2010 FBI search-warrant affidavit, unsealed in 2013, described Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible co-conspirator in violating the Espionage Act because he sought classified information from a State Department analyst, and used that theory to obtain his private emails.{c:228}{c:229}{c:230}",
  "what_happened": "In 2009, Fox News reporter James Rosen published a story, based on a State Department analyst's account, that North Korea would likely respond to United Nations sanctions with more nuclear tests. Investigating the leak, an FBI agent wrote in a 2010 warrant affidavit, unsealed and reported in 2013, that Rosen, \"in his newsgathering, was violating federal statutes that prohibit 'unauthorized disclosure of national defense information' as an 'aider, abettor, and/or co-conspirator,'\" under the Espionage Act, a 1917 law against disclosing defense information. A federal magistrate approved the warrant, which the Justice Department used to obtain two days of Rosen's personal emails, his phone records and records of his security-badge movements inside the State Department. The analyst, Stephen Kim, was separately charged and later pleaded guilty. Rosen himself was never charged; press-freedom groups said naming a reporter as a criminal co-conspirator for ordinary newsgathering, asking questions and cultivating a source, had no precedent in a warrant against a working journalist.{c:228}{c:229}{c:230}",
  "stated_justification": "The FBI affidavit argued Rosen's newsgathering itself, soliciting classified information and cultivating a source, made him a likely \"aider, abettor, and/or co-conspirator\" in violating the Espionage Act, the legal theory the Justice Department used to justify seizing his records.{c:229}",
  "effect_on_reporting": "The Justice Department seized Rosen's personal emails, phone records and State Department security-badge logs; the Committee to Protect Journalists said such tactics against reporters had \"a chilling effect domestically and sends a terrible message to journalists around the world.\"{c:230}",
  "unknowns": null,
  "status": "historical",
  "status_updated_on": "2026-09-22",
  "external_ids": {},
  "illustration_key": null,
  "pub_state": "published",
  "published_at": "2026-09-22T23:08:00Z",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-22",
  "next_review_on": "2026-12-22",
  "revision": 5,
  "created_at": "2026-09-22T23:07:54Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:11:08Z",
  "stage": "punish",
  "ladder_note": null,
  "country_name": "United States",
  "tactics": [
    "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
    "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
  ],
  "leader": {
    "slug": "barack-obama",
    "name": "Barack Obama",
    "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/barack-obama"
  },
  "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator",
  "page_meta": {
    "published": "2026-09-22T23:08:00Z",
    "reviewed": "2026-09-22",
    "sources": 2,
    "status": "historical",
    "statusAsOf": "2026-09-22",
    "unknowns": null
  },
  "actors": [
    {
      "slug": "barack-obama",
      "name": "Barack Obama",
      "kind": "person",
      "role": "other",
      "role_at_time": null,
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/actors/barack-obama"
    },
    {
      "slug": "eric-holder",
      "name": "Eric Holder",
      "kind": "person",
      "role": "ordered",
      "role_at_time": null,
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/actors/eric-holder"
    },
    {
      "slug": "james-rosen",
      "name": "James Rosen",
      "kind": "person",
      "role": "other",
      "role_at_time": null,
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/actors/james-rosen"
    },
    {
      "slug": "stephen-kim",
      "name": "Stephen Jin-Woo Kim",
      "kind": "person",
      "role": "other",
      "role_at_time": null,
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/actors/stephen-kim"
    }
  ],
  "outlets": [
    {
      "slug": "fox-news",
      "name": "Fox News",
      "relation": "affected",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/outlets/fox-news"
    }
  ],
  "journalists": [],
  "cases": [],
  "related": [],
  "events": [],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": 228,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 61,
      "field": "action",
      "value": "Affidavit calls Rosen a co-conspirator",
      "statement": "The FBI affidavit described Rosen's newsgathering as making him a possible co-conspirator under the Espionage Act.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 209,
      "evidence_quote": "in his newsgathering, was violating federal statutes that prohibit 'unauthorized disclosure of national defense information' as an 'aider, abettor, and/or co-conspirator.'",
      "evidence_date": "2013-05-20",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "v2-research-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-22T23:07:56Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 209,
        "url": "https://www.rcfp.org/justice-search-warrant-relied-probable-cause-criminal-conduct-fox-ne/",
        "final_url": "https://www.rcfp.org/justice-search-warrant-relied-probable-cause-criminal-conduct-fox-ne/",
        "title": "Justice search warrant relied on probable cause of criminal conduct by Fox News journalist",
        "publisher": "Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press",
        "published_on": "2013-05-20",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T23:23:23Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/228"
    },
    {
      "id": 229,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 61,
      "field": "stated_justification",
      "value": "Rosen framed as an aider and abettor",
      "statement": "The government's theory was that Rosen's newsgathering made him an aider, abettor or co-conspirator.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 210,
      "evidence_quote": "an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator",
      "evidence_date": "2013-05-20",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "v2-research-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-22T23:07:57Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 210,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2013/05/cpj-alarmed-by-us-justice-scrutiny-of-fox-news-rep/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2013/05/cpj-alarmed-by-us-justice-scrutiny-of-fox-news-rep/",
        "title": "CPJ alarmed by U.S. Justice scrutiny of Fox News reporter",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2013-05-20",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T23:23:23Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/229"
    },
    {
      "id": 230,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 61,
      "field": "effect_on_reporting",
      "value": "CPJ warns of a chilling effect",
      "statement": "CPJ said prosecuting leakers by obtaining journalists' records chilled newsgathering domestically and abroad.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 210,
      "evidence_quote": "U.S. government efforts to prosecute leakers by obtaining information from journalists has a chilling effect domestically and sends a terrible message to journalists around the world who are fighting to resist government intrusion",
      "evidence_date": "2013-05-20",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "v2-research-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-22T23:07:57Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 210,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2013/05/cpj-alarmed-by-us-justice-scrutiny-of-fox-news-rep/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2013/05/cpj-alarmed-by-us-justice-scrutiny-of-fox-news-rep/",
        "title": "CPJ alarmed by U.S. Justice scrutiny of Fox News reporter",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2013-05-20",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T23:23:23Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/230"
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": 209,
      "url": "https://www.rcfp.org/justice-search-warrant-relied-probable-cause-criminal-conduct-fox-ne/",
      "final_url": "https://www.rcfp.org/justice-search-warrant-relied-probable-cause-criminal-conduct-fox-ne/",
      "title": "Justice search warrant relied on probable cause of criminal conduct by Fox News journalist",
      "publisher": "Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press",
      "published_on": "2013-05-20",
      "link_state": "live",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T23:23:23Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    },
    {
      "id": 210,
      "url": "https://cpj.org/2013/05/cpj-alarmed-by-us-justice-scrutiny-of-fox-news-rep/",
      "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2013/05/cpj-alarmed-by-us-justice-scrutiny-of-fox-news-rep/",
      "title": "CPJ alarmed by U.S. Justice scrutiny of Fox News reporter",
      "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
      "published_on": "2013-05-20",
      "link_state": "live",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T23:23:23Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    }
  ],
  "revisions_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator/revisions",
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  },
  "cite_as": "United States search warrant names Fox News reporter James Rosen a possible co-conspirator in a leak case. The War On News, thewaronnews.com. https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator. Retrieved 2026-09-23."
}