yeahright
Well-known member
S.F. reporters await fate for refusing to reveal source in steroid probe
DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters are awaiting their punishment for refusing to testify about who leaked them secret grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds and other elite athletes.
The government will ask U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White on Thursday for an 18-month term. The reporters are seeking a "nominal monetary fine" and other punishment "short of full blown incarceration," including house arrest and weekend jailing, according to court documents.
The government and reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada have agreed that the writers are in contempt of court but that any punishment meted out should be stayed pending a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Williams and Fainaru-Wada have said repeatedly they would go to jail rather than comply with the grand jury's subpoena and reveal their source or sources.
The two reporters published a series of articles and a book based partly on transcripts of the testimony of Bonds, Jason Giambi and others before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a Burlingame-based nutritional supplement company exposed as a steroid ring two years ago.
Authorities want to charge whoever unlawfully leaked the transcripts, and told White that the reporters are the only ones who know who did. White ordered the two to testify on Aug. 15.
The criminal conduct being investigated in the Bonds leak case includes possible perjury and obstruction of justice by government officials, defendants in the BALCO probe and their attorneys. All had access to the leaked documents, but have sworn they weren't the source of Williams and Fainaru-Wada's reporting.
White ruled his hands were tied by a 1972 Supreme Court precedent that said no one - journalists included - was above the law and may refuse to testify before a federal grand jury.
The Chronicle reported that Bonds told the grand jury that he believed he was using flaxseed oil and arthritic balm, not steroids, supplied by trainer Greg Anderson, one of five defendants convicted in the BALCO scandal.
Anderson served his three months and is behind bars again for refusing to testify before another federal grand jury investigating whether Bonds committed perjury when he gave that testimony in the BALCO case.
The case is In re Grand Jury Subpoenas to Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, 06-90225.
DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters are awaiting their punishment for refusing to testify about who leaked them secret grand jury testimony from Barry Bonds and other elite athletes.
The government will ask U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White on Thursday for an 18-month term. The reporters are seeking a "nominal monetary fine" and other punishment "short of full blown incarceration," including house arrest and weekend jailing, according to court documents.
The government and reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada have agreed that the writers are in contempt of court but that any punishment meted out should be stayed pending a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Williams and Fainaru-Wada have said repeatedly they would go to jail rather than comply with the grand jury's subpoena and reveal their source or sources.
The two reporters published a series of articles and a book based partly on transcripts of the testimony of Bonds, Jason Giambi and others before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a Burlingame-based nutritional supplement company exposed as a steroid ring two years ago.
Authorities want to charge whoever unlawfully leaked the transcripts, and told White that the reporters are the only ones who know who did. White ordered the two to testify on Aug. 15.
The criminal conduct being investigated in the Bonds leak case includes possible perjury and obstruction of justice by government officials, defendants in the BALCO probe and their attorneys. All had access to the leaked documents, but have sworn they weren't the source of Williams and Fainaru-Wada's reporting.
White ruled his hands were tied by a 1972 Supreme Court precedent that said no one - journalists included - was above the law and may refuse to testify before a federal grand jury.
The Chronicle reported that Bonds told the grand jury that he believed he was using flaxseed oil and arthritic balm, not steroids, supplied by trainer Greg Anderson, one of five defendants convicted in the BALCO scandal.
Anderson served his three months and is behind bars again for refusing to testify before another federal grand jury investigating whether Bonds committed perjury when he gave that testimony in the BALCO case.
The case is In re Grand Jury Subpoenas to Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, 06-90225.
