Under federal indictment, former campaign manager Paul Manafort asked a federal court to keep the news media from obtaining documents in one of his criminal cases. Manafort claimed releasing the documents would hurt his chances for a fair trial. Manafort’s lawyer observed that Manafort himself did not have access to the documents and that the court banned him from making any public comments on the case. (Courthouse News Service, June 5, 2018, by Britain Eakin)
The Associated Press, Politico, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN argue that the importance of the case to the public out weighs privacy concerns. “Under the common law, courts balance the public’s right to information about the workings of the criminal justice system against the legitimate countervailing interests of the government; here, that balance tips decisively in favor of the public,” argue the news outlets.(Talking Points Memo, April 5, 2018, by Kate Riga)
Special counsel Robert Mueller filed a brief challenging the news media request, “The Special Counsel’s investigation is not a closed matter, but an ongoing criminal investigation with multiple lines of non-public inquiry. No right of public access exists to search warrant materials in an ongoing investigation,” Mueller’s team wrote. (CNN, May 24, 2018, by Katelyn Polantz)