Full text of my subpoena from the Department of Homeland Security

Geez, you’d think that you were the panty bom-ber! These guys can’t protect us, despite their claims, from the bad guys so they go after an American blogger, now that makes me feel so secure. The clumsier and more incompetent the giant, the more he steps on the friendlies.

One last cogent point – you are only disclosing SSI if the document you disclose is properly notated. Only you know if the text of the document you received contains the notation required stating it is SSI. If it did, then they have a prima facie case of knowingly disseminating SSI. If it did not, then the TSA needs to prove that the entire text of the document you published was SSI and then why it is.

This is an investigative subpoena which shows the ignorance of those conducting the internal investigation. If I am the investigator – I call you up and ask you where you got it first. You refuse to disclose a source – then I ratchet up the pressure but only after speaking with a few lawyers in the office about your status under the First amendment.

This is Daniel Ellsberg / Pentagon Papers simple: if you are a journalist the case applies – if not – then it does not. If you are a journalist – then you are protected – end of story. Ellsberg already did the time to establish the law.

This is simple. As the subpoena was not issued by a court, I’d ignore.

Get with your attorney. TSA can go to a federal judge later, but I’d throw this paperwork back in their face.

How long until we replace the rest of the *cough* constitution with the remaining pages that have not yet been ripped out of Mein Kampf?

The polite subpoena server does not make up for the heavy-handed tactics of the storm trooper elite.

The nerve of calling any previous administrations a gaggle of jag-booted thugs. Maybe it takes one to know one.

After they finish passing their healthcare stranglehold package, they WILL be further emboldened with the knowledge that they can do anything. Their heads will further swell with power and in their drunkenness they will go after more and more of the priniciples and rights that most red-state red-blooded Americans hold dear. Kiss your ammo goodbye. In one form or another, they will make it impossible for most law-abiding citizens to own because it will be too wrapped up in red tape or too expensive or both.

My only question is….will the populace wake up before it is too late? Or, is the sleeping giant going to be chewed up little bite by little bite until it is too late to be able to do anything about it.

Death to the New World Order. God bless the Republic the Empire is on the run. We shall prevail!

I hope you and every American in America sees the value in a COMPLETE paper shredding system in thier home. Much like all the political and governemt offices seem to have these days so that when they are served a Subpeona, damming evidence or now gets bulk shredded to non-reconstructable dust. Hey, if it’s good enough for our government, then why not its citizens?

I dare any of you to find a section in the United States code that defines United States in a way that lists all 50 states. They will either say the term includes the states, or refer to ‘the 50 states’, but they won’t use the ink to name the individual states.

Look, I’m an attorney, and there are serious issues involved here in what the TSA attorney, Dan Kuntz, and the TSA agents did to you. They have seriously violated your rights and I strongly recommend you consult an attorney. Here’s why:

1. You don’t send Federal agents to serve a SUBPOENA. Federal agents serve search warrants, not subpoenas. Subpoenas are generally sent by certified mail or served in person by disinterested, third person process servers. Subpoenas are subject to a motion to quash for a number of reasons, such as being overbroad or vague, or not relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation or civil action. Warrants are not subject to motions to quash prior to their service, an agent just shows up and takes what is specified in the warrant. That’s why warrants are harder to get, they require a judge to sign off on the attorney’s certification that probable cause exists that a crime was committed and the search will reveal evidence of the infraction. In this case, Mr. Kuntz knew he could not secure a warrant, because a judge would not have signed off on his flimsy suspicions and would not give him the authority to take your computer to try to hunt down a whistleblower (which is a purely intra-agency matter).

On the other hand, by going with a subpoena, Kuntz knew his subpoena was definitely subject to being quashed on a number of counts, as it asked for every piece of information you had regarding a TSA directive, whether such information was relevant to an ongoing investigation or not. Kuntz knew any competent attorney would tell him to go jump in a lake, and he would never get anything from you. So Kuntz went way over the line. Instead of mailing or serving by process server, Kuntz sent Federal agents to “serve” his subpoena in an attempt to intimidate you into thinking they had a warrant, rather than some wish list a lawyer drew up without any court supervision. This is as blatant as a Federal attorney can get in trying to suppress protected free speech. Mr. Kuntz clearly intended you to believe you were required to turn over your personal computer to the agents right there, and those agents had orders to threaten you. This is an abuse of an unrepresented party, but more importantly, it is an action which calls our entire profession into disrepute. Mr. Kuntz should not be entrusted with the power of the government.

2. Under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Kuntz’ signature serves as his certification to the court that the subpoena was not served for purposes of harassment, and that he has a reasonable basis to believe a civil action exists and he is properly investigating said action. As I mentioned above, this case is as clear as it gets. A government attorney sent Federal agents to intimidate a citizen in his home, making threats against his livelihood and served his subpoena in an out of the ordinary fashion for the sole purpose of harassment. Kuntz is liable to you for sanctions under Rule 11, in the form of your attorneys’ costs for dealing with his unwarranted harassment. DO NOT LET THIS GO.

3. The agents involved knew what they were doing was wrong. During their questioning of you, they made clear, direct threats to your livelihood, and seized your property without a warrant, using the invalid subpoena as a basis for their entering your home. Any lawyer worth his salt would tear these clowns up. No investigator from any other Federal agency would have tried such a sleazy move, but TSA is and always has been the bottom of the barrel. Yet, these guys have just done a personal favor for a career attorney by going over the line, and Mr. Kuntz will remember them when the time comes to recommend them for promotion. Agents willing to abuse citizens’ rights in this fashion cannot be allowed to advance in the government. Again, DO NOT LET THIS GO.

I strongly recommend contacting your counsel and getting his opinion. If you don’t want to spend any money, there are numerous groups willing to call Mr. Kuntz to account. Again, I really have to strongly recommend not to let this go.

We get the government we tolerate, for good or bad.

I read on Fox News Web Page where one writer is now calling the TSA To Stupid for America.. The writer went on to say that if you could not get comic releif from Letterman or some of the other comics on the Tele. just go to the TSA web page. It would keep you rolling with laughter. As I have never been to their web page I don’t know as it all does not matter to me as I do not, will not Fly. For those of you who do I would expect they do every thing they can to make flying safe. But here is the deal, Obama or his mouth peace Robert Gibbs wants to say it’s Bush’s fault this Detroit thing that happened. My question is this, at what time does Obama grow up and except fault for his own mistakes without looking to blame someone else? Obama has been in Office one year. At what point does fault become his ?

So many people are missing the point here. The feds are NOT after the blogger. The feds are after the person who leaked the security directive. From what I can see of the referenced regulations, Elliott hasn’t violated any federal regulations or laws. Ignoring an administrative subpoena isn’t even an issue – until it’s a court-issued subpoena. And as for exactly who it was that leaked that security directive – it isn’t just TSA employees who have legal access to that document, but so do literally HUNDREDS (if not thousands) of airline employees. And yes, the stuff in the leaked security directive can be seen (and hence, known) by any person flying, I find it rather alarming that someone’s out there who might put MY safety at risk by leakig security directives to the public (to include Al Qaeda). First, the leaker is total scum for violating his or her promise to protect the information. And second, who’s to say what this person will take upon themselves to broadcast to the world? How to defeat the luggage scanners? Leaking this security directive wasn’t about blowing the whistle on government abuses – this was about nothign but “Look who I am and what I have….”

The first thing I’d do is tell my kids that no Americans have any friends at the DHS/TSA, regardless of how much the cats like Agent F. Hitler sent friendly guys to round up Jews, too.

Good job and thanks for keeping the rest of us informed about all of this. I think it’s a healthy dose of transparency.