- The article was about a child porn raid that killed two of its agents – the suspect committed suicide afterwards
- The raid was at 6am and USA Today published at 9.30am
- The subpoena asks for the IP addresses and phone numbers of everyone who clicked on the story between 8.03pm and 8.38pm that night
- The FBI Agent who issued it – J. Brooke Donahue – doesn’t say why he wants that specific information, just that it will aide an ongoing investigation
- USA Today’s owner, Gannett, is pushing back, calling the subpoena a violation of the First Amendment
The FBI has asked USA Today for the IP addresses and phone numbers of everyone who read one of its articles during a 35-minute period in February as part of an ongoing child porn probe, in what the publisher is calling a violation of the First Amendment.
On February 2, FBI agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger were killed and three others were wounded when 55-year-old David Huber started shooting as they approached his apartment in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 6am.
He was suspected of possessing child porn, but the FBI has never revealed why. After killing the agents, he took his own life.
Huber had no criminal record.
USA Today was among the many news outfits that covered the story on February 2. It published the story at 9.29 that morning – three-and-a-half hours after it happened.