Truthdig
Journalist Barrett Brown, Recently Released From Prison, Is Re-Arrested
Before Scheduled Interview
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/journalist_barrett_brown_back_in
_police_custody_20170430/
Posted on Apr 30, 2017
Barrett Brown, pictured here in 2007, gave interviews to Vice and other
outlets and was about to do an interview for PBS when he was re-arrested
last week. (Karen Lancaster)
Journalist Barrett Brown is once again in police custody after being
arrested Thursday. Alex Emmons of The Intercept-a publication for which
Brown, a prominent figure in the fight for press freedom, recently wrote
dispatches from prison-reported that Brown had been taken into custody again
(https://theintercept.com/2017/04/27/formerly-imprisoned-journalist-barrett-
brown-taken-back-into-custody-before-pbs-interview/) one day prior to a
scheduled interview with PBS. Brown's mother, Karen Lancaster, relayed to
Emmons that Brown believes he was arrested because he did not file the
correct paperwork requesting permission to give interviews to the press.
Neither his mother nor his attorney, Jay Leiderman, know where he is being
held.
Brown was released from prison in November after serving a term related to
disclosure of emails involving a global intelligence company named Stratfor.
Here's more from The Intercept:
Brown quickly became a symbol of the attack on press freedom after he was
arrested in 2012 for reporting he did on the hacked emails of
intelligence-contracting firms. Brown wrote about hacked emails that showed
the firm Stratfor spying on activists on behalf of corporations. Brown also
helped uncover a proposal by intelligence contractors to hack and smear
WikiLeaks defenders and progressive activists.
Faced with the possibility of 100 years in prison, Brown pleaded guilty in
2014 to two charges related to obstruction of justice and threatening an FBI
agent, and was sentenced to five years and 3 months. In 2016, Brown won a
National Magazine Award for his scathing and often hilarious columns in The
Intercept, which focused on his life in prison. He was released in November.
Jay Leiderman, Brown's lawyer, told The Intercept Brown was arrested
Thursday during a check-in. According to his mother, Brown had not missed a
check-in or failed a drug test since he was released to a halfway house in
November.
... Since his release, Brown has given numerous interviews, on camera and by
phone. But according to his mother, Brown said that the Bureau of Prisons
never informed him about a paperwork requirement. When he followed up with
his check-in officer, he was given a different form: a liability form for
media entering prisons.
So once again, First Amendment concerns are directly implicated in the
reasons for Brown's detainment. Read more about Brown's case in this 2013
Truthdig report
(http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/gagging_the_press_the_federal_c
ase_against_barrett_brown) this 2015 Truthdigger of the Week piece
(http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_barrett_brown_2
0150124) .
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