State AG Apologizes to Reporters over Subpoena for Notes

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State Attorney General Bill Schuette said Thursday that he spoke personally with two reporters whose notes his office tried to subpoena after they interviewed Michigan inmates on prison treatment and allegations by some that they were sexually abused while serving time the state corrections facilities as juveniles.

For the record, Schuette told the journalists he’s sorry for the whole thing. “It won’t happen again,” he promised.

It happened three times, actually.

The AG’s office twice subpoenaed the notes of Huffington Post reporter Dana Liebelson, who is investigating prison conditions in the state.

In a separate subpoena, his office sought the “complete and unedited” audio and video recordings of Michigan Radio’s Cynthia Canty’s March 3 interview with an Ann Arbor attorney representing inmates who are suing the state for alleged sexual and physical abuse they sustained as juveniles serving time in the corrections system.

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Schuette withdrew all three subpoenas Monday, hours after Liebelson announced on Twitter that she’d been served.

The withdrawal of the subpoenas did little to quell the developing firestorm of criticism against Schuette and his office.

In a blistering editorial, the Detroit Free Press said the attorney general’s office “demonstrated poor judgment – and a troubling ignorance of well-settled law.”

“The prompt course correction spared Schuette’s subordinates an embarrassing reversal in court, where any judge familiar with the applicable Michigan law likely would have quashed the subpoenas on the spot,” the newspaper opined.

“But even if it had not so clearly violated the statutory standard, the impulse to subpoena a working reporter’s unpublished work product was a thuggish one that should have been rejected at the outset. Liebelson properly recognized the subpoenas as a heavy-handed effort to intimidate her and her sources.”

Schuette is eager to put the matter to rest.

“I was distressed by what they went through and it won’t happen again in the future,” he said in a conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon. “We do sterling work most of the time, but when a mistake occurs, I won’t throw anyone under the bus. I take responsibility.”

Schuette, who said he was on vacation when the subpoenas were issued and didn’t know about them until he learned of Liebelson’s tweets. He told reporters he will personally review any future subpoenas for the media issued by his office – action he doesn’t recall ever having been taken before by his office.

“I understand the responsibilities of what journalists do to uphold the First Amendment,” Schuette said. “It should not have happened and it won’t happen again.”

About 275 attorneys and 125 support staff work in the state’s attorney’s office. Schuette said no one was fired, but he declined to say if any attorneys faced disciplinary action.

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