Reading Room Document

District Ct. Op., United States v. Rosen et al., No. 1:05-cr-225 (E.D. Va. Nov. 2, 2007)

District court's opinion in response to Defendants' request for requested witness subpoenas for 20 current and former government officials, outlining the legal principles controlling whether the subpoenas should issue. Defendants argued the subpoenas were necessary because they indicated the prevalence of government officials engaging in "back channel" communications to advance foreign policy goals, which went to the lack of required mental state under the Espionage Act, as construed by the district court. The district court sustained some of the Government's objections and overruled others, and issued a separate sealed and classified order ruling reflecting the specific reasoning and ruling for each requested witness subpoena, but published the names of the 15 witnesses for which subpoenas would issue.

November 2, 2007