Blogging about your US Attorney


By DIA, Section News
Posted on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 05:11:23 AM EST

Better be careful when you are blogging and saying that US Attorney Glen Suddaby appears to be failing to investigate Joe Bruno or the city of Albany for its cover up of the APD's illegal machine gun issue, or you might lose your job.
The abrupt dismissal of a veteran University of Alabama employee who blogged about the firing of seven US Attorneys has added a bizarre new twist to allegations that the state's US Attorneys targeted political opponents for prosecution.

Roger Shuler -- a high-profile blogger and leading critic of Alabama's judicial system -- has written extensively about alleged corruption among U.S. Attorneys for over a year. In particular, Shuler focused on two US Attorneys from his home state: Alice H. Martin of the Northern District and Leura G. Canary of the Middle District.

An editor in the University of Alabama Birmingham publications office for the last 12 years and a university employee for 19, Shuler was placed on administrative leave May 7 and formally fired May 19.
Don't investigate crimes committed by your allies, go after anyone who criticizes you. Somewhere Erastus Corning is smiling.

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Blogging about your US Attorney | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
More blogging stuff (none / 0) (#1)
by albany layman on Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 07:04:51 AM EST
More blogging stuff, this time with a district attorney snooping around a political web site.

A grand jury subpoena sent by prosecutors in the Bronx earlier this year sought information to help identify people blogging anonymously on a Web site about New York politics called Room 8.

The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence "could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with law enforcement" -- implying that if the bloggers blabbed, they could be prosecuted.

"We were totally perplexed," said Ben Smith, who co-founded Room 8 with Gur Tsabar. (The site calls itself an "imaginary neighbor" to the press room -- Room 9 -- in City Hall in New York.) The two promptly began looking for a lawyer. "We knew enough to be scared."

This, of course, is a blogger's nightmare: enforced silence and the prospect of jail time. The district attorney eventually withdrew the subpoena and lifted the gag requirement after the bloggers threatened to sue. But the fact that the tactic was used at all raised alarm bells for some free speech advocates.
Guess I'm In Big Trouble (none / 0) (#2)
by Dan Van Riper on Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 04:55:18 AM EST

I'm proud to say that in a blog post I called Suddaby sleazy and a schmuck:

http://www.albanyweblog.com/2008/02-Feb/02-16-08.php

And you know what?  I'm gonna do it again!  

Blogging about your US Attorney | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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