Judge: Glenn Beck must identify sources on Boston Marathon bombing
A looming First Amendment showdown drew closer Tuesday as a federal judge ordered conservative media host Glenn Beck to identify at least two confidential sources in connection with a defamation lawsuit stemming from Beck's reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing.
The suit was filed by Saudi Arabian student Abdulrahman Alharbi, who was injured at the scene of the deadly bombings. Beck continued to link the Saudi national to the attacks even after U.S. officials said publicly he'd been cleared.
U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris ruled that Beck must disclose the names of two Department of Homeland Security employees who allegedly gave a Beck producer information backing up the radio and TV host's claim that Alharbi was the "money man" behind the attack.
The judge said deposition testimony from Beck and two of his top deputies at the time - Joel Cheatwood and Joe Weasel - was "vague and often contradictory" about what the sources said and when they said it. She also noted that the key sources spoke directly only with Weasel, who claimed to record the information on Post-It notes "which he then discarded."
Saris said she ordered the production of records from several government agencies, but they were not of help in confirming what the Beck aides were allegedly told. "None of the documents supports the idea that Alharbi was the 'the money man' financing the Boston Marathon attacks," the Boston-based judge wrote in her 61-page ruling.
The judge acknowledged that forcing disclosure of the sources' identities raised "First Amendment concerns," but she suggested those could be limited by restricting distribution of the information.
It's unclear whether Beck plans to comply with the disclosure order, which is directed to the defendants in the case: Beck, his companies TheBlaze Inc. and Mercury Radio Arts, as well as radio distributor Premiere Radio Networks. If they defy the order, the judge could impose sanctions, which could hurt their defense in the suit. She could also assess fines, or potentially even jail Beck for contempt.
Further complicating the situation, Cheatwood left Beck's media empire early last year to start a competing outlet, Red Seat Ventures. Last month, Beck's company Mercury filed suit against the founder of that firm for breach of contract.
A spokesman for Beck did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
In another blow to Beck and the related companies facing the suit, the judge ruled that Al-Harbi was not a public figure at the time of the accusations.
That will make it easier for Alharbi to win the case by lowering the burden of proof. To win, the Saudi will only have to show that Beck and the companies were negligent in broadcasting the reports. If the judge found Alharbi to be a public figure, even if in a limited way by virtue of his presence at the bombing scene, Alharbi would have had to prove that the defendants either knew what they were broadcasting was false or acted with reckless disregard for its accuracy.
Saris rejected Beck's arguments that Alharbi became a public figure by conducting several interviews after the attack denying that he had any involvement in planning it.
The judge also rejected, for now, Beck's defense that his statements constituted a "fair report" of an official government action - namely, the inclusion of Alharbi in an official government database that serves as a terrorist watch list. Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appeared to confirm in congressional testimony that he was temporarily entered into a watch-list system but said it was "quickly determined he had nothing to do with the bombing [and] the watch listing status was removed."
The judge did rule for Beck on a couple of points - one of which could be very important to calculating damages in the case. By ruling that Massachusetts law applies to the dispute, and not that of Texas as Alharbi's lawyers claimed, Saris ruled out punitive damages that could have dramatically increased a potential verdict and, therefore, a settlement.
The judge also dismissed one of Alharbi's claims over a statement Beck made about some of those involved in planning the attacks. Saris said that statement referred to Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the brothers authorities contend carried out the bombings. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police a few days after the attacks. Dzhokhar was convicted of his involvement and sentenced to death.
A lawyer for Alharbi declined to comment on the ruling from Saris, who was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton.
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