In its first demonstration of a criminal investigation being brought by the United States against WikiLeaks, investigators went to court to demand the Twitter activity of numerous different people linked to WikiLeaks.
This subpoena is the first attempt at evidence gathering in this investigation. However, with it come difficulties for the government. While members of Congress want the investigation to happen, it is filled with political and criminal difficulties for the Administration. Moreso, WikiLeaks has threatened to release the remainder of the confidential diplomatic cables that they have on store. Currently, they have only released 1% of the quarter-million documents.
The move became public when five figures tied to WikiLeaks received e-mails late Friday night from Twitter. For example, Birgitta Jonsdottir, a former WikiLeaks activist and current member of Iceland’s Parliament, received one such e-mail.
In the e-mail, it said that it had received a legal request for details pertaining to these members. It went on to say that they would have to provide the information unless “a motion to quash the legal process has been filed.”
WikiLeaks confirmed the subpoena on Twitter and warned that Facebook and Google might have received the same e-mails. Neither company responded to these allegations.
Jodi Olson, a spokeswoman for Twitter, couldn’t comment on the issue. However, she did tell the New York Times that “to help users protect their rights, it’s our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so.”
The five people in the subpoena were two Americans—Bradley Manning and Jacob Appelbaum—plus Julian Assange, an Australian; Ms. Jonsdottir, of Iceland; and Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch citizen. This presents a conundrum for the United States. If they subpoena three foreigners, it could be argued that they are trying to stifle free communication between individuals who are not Americans and who were not in America at the time of the messages being sent.
Ms. Jonsdottir said that she would be consenting the court action. While she denied using her Twitter account to send sensitive information, she said that “it’s just the fact that another country would request this sort of personal information from an elected official without having any case against me.”
The subpoena seeks activity from November 1st which is the a few weeks before Private Manning is alleged to have begun downloading sensitive information.
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