{"id":1998818,"date":"2023-08-12T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-attorney-withdraws-motion-in-second-amendment-case-on-first-amendment-concerns\/"},"modified":"2023-08-12T13:36:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T17:36:27","slug":"us-attorney-withdraws-motion-in-second-amendment-case-on-first-amendment-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-attorney-withdraws-motion-in-second-amendment-case-on-first-amendment-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"US Attorney withdraws motion due to First Amendment concerns in Second Amendment case."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fus-attorney-withdraws-motion-in-second-amendment-case-on-first-amendment-concerns%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1998818&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<h2>An Assistant U.S. Attorney Withdraws Motion to Muzzle Internet Reporter<\/h2>\n<p>During a recent hearing on August 11, an assistant U.S. Attorney attempted to silence an internet reporter\u200d covering the sentencing of a man convicted of transferring machine gun parts. However, the motion was later withdrawn, according to the targeted reporter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think she just didn&#8217;t like\u2064 the mean comments (on the YouTube video),&#8221; said \u200cJohn Crump, the reporter in question, in an interview with The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>John Crump is the host of the popular John Crump News YouTube channel and is also a frequent contributor to \u2063the AmmoLand.com Shooting and Sports News website.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"mb-4 mr-4 w-full max-w-[500px] border border-[#D3D3D3] px-5 py-4 text-[16px] leading-[20px] text-[#262626] md:float-left\">\n<div class=\"mb-3 font-sans text-[16px] font-semibold uppercase leading-[19px] text-[#2F2F2F]\">Related Stories<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/gun-rights-group-sues-atf-over-machine-gun-classification-rule-5456449\">Gun Rights Group Sues ATF Over Machine-Gun Classification Rule<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/10\/2023<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/epochtv\/us-supreme-court-hands-down-5-4-gun-ruling-facts-matter-5455103\">US Supreme Court Hands Down 5-4 Gun Ruling | Facts Matter<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/9\/2023<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/supreme-court-revives-biden-admins-ghost-guns-regulation-5448151\">Supreme Court\u200d Revives Biden Admin&#8217;s Ghost Guns\u2062 Regulation<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/8\/2023<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>According to court filings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura\u2063 Cofer Taylor initially requested that John Crump destroy any copies of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-sasse-calls-out-jackassery-in-senate-moments-after-cruz-questioned-ketanji-brown-jackson\/\" title=\"Sen. Sasse Calls Out \u2018Jackassery\u2019 in Senate Moments After Cruz Questioned Ketanji Brown Jackson\u00a0\">pre-sentencing report<\/a> he had obtained in\u200d the case of United States v. Kristopher Justinboyer Ervin and Matthew Raymond Hoover.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, she sought a gag order against Crump and demanded written verification that the report had been \u2064destroyed.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:640px\" class=\"aligncenter\"><figcaption>Internet reporter and YouTube\u200d presenter \u2063John Crump. (Courtesy John Crump)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Speaking on his YouTube \u200bchannel after the \u2064hearing, Crump revealed that Ms. Taylor did not speak during the August 11 hearing. Instead, a different U.S. Attorney addressed the court.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He \u2063said the government \u200cdecided it was in their\u200c best interests to go ahead\u200b and\u200c withdraw that \u2064motion,&#8221; Crump explained.<\/p>\n<p>In her motion, Ms. Taylor claimed that the report was privileged. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-attorney-withdraws-motion-in-second-amendment-case-on-first-amendment-concerns\/\" title=\"US Attorney withdraws motion due to First Amendment concerns in Second Amendment case.\">motion detailed recorded telephone \u2062conversations<\/a> between Matthew Raymond Hoover and John Crump, discussing the report and how\u2063 Crump would report on it. Additionally, the motion highlighted\u200d offensive comments left on Crump&#8217;s YouTube videos about the case, some of\u200c which made implicit threats and referenced Ms. Taylor&#8217;s\u2062 health condition.<\/p>\n<p>Will Daniels, a spokesperson for the U.S. \u2063Attorney&#8217;s Office in Tampa, Florida, declined to comment on\u200b the matter. \u200cThe U.S. Department of Justice media contact in Washington did not respond to requests for comment before the deadline.<\/p>\n<h2>Prior Restraint Criticized<\/h2>\n<p>In response to the government&#8217;s motion, Crump&#8217;s attorneys expressed outrage at the prosecutor&#8217;s attempt to impose \u2062prior restraint. This concept has been repeatedly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Taking a page straight from Orwell&#8217;s 1984, the United \u2063States of\u2064 America has asked this Court to take a blowtorch to the First Amendment, and impose a prior\u200c restraint\u200b on a non-party&#8217;s publication and dissemination of information contained in a nonclassified, nonprivileged, nonsensitive criminal Presentence Report,&#8221; \u2062read \u2064the response from Crump&#8217;s legal team. &#8220;To \u200ccall the government&#8217;s request untethered to American Constitutional law would\u200c be\u2062 putting it mildly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Crump&#8217;s lawyers invoked a historic First Amendment decision to support their argument.<\/p>\n<p>In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara commissioned a report on \u200dAmerican progress in the Vietnam War. Portions of the report, which portrayed the United States unfavorably, were leaked to the New York Times in 1971. The government sued to prevent the publication of these documents, citing \u200cnational security concerns.<\/p>\n<p>On June 30, 1971,\u2064 the U.S. \u2064Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the government had failed to prove its case and that the publication of the so-called &#8220;Pentagon Papers&#8221; was in the public interest under the First Amendment. Crump&#8217;s lawyers \u2063argued that the same principle applies in this case.<\/p>\n<h2>Reminiscent of\u200d Pentagon\u2063 Papers<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Prior restraints are the most\u2063 egregious restrictions on expressive\u200b rights\u2063 and are subject to the strongest presumption of invalidity,&#8221; the response continued. &#8220;Accordingly, a gag order preventing reporting by third parties on a matter of public concern would strike at the\u2062 very heart \u2062of the press and \u200dspeech \u200bfreedoms guaranteed in our bill of rights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gun Owners of America (GOA) provided legal assistance and\u200d issued a \u200dstatement following the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are grateful to our legal team for\u200c their quick and decisive efforts to block this gag order on Second\u200c Amendment reporter John Crump, who is a good friend \u2064of GOA. This assault on \u2063freedom of the\u200d press was unacceptable, and we were proud to help in blocking the government&#8217;s \u2062attempt \u200bto censor John&#8217;s reporting,&#8221; wrote Erich\u200c Pratt, GOA&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-confirms-kathleen-hicks-as-deputy-defense-secretary\/\" title=\"Senate Confirms Kathleen Hicks as Deputy Defense Secretary\">senior vice president<\/a>, in a statement \u200cto The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>Crump had obtained a presentencing report for Matthew Raymond Hoover, who is currently awaiting sentencing after being found guilty by a jury.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An assistant U.S. Attorney withdrew a motion to silence an internet reporter during a man&#8217;s sentencing for transferring machine gun parts. The reporter, John Crump, believes the attorney was bothered by negative comments on a YouTube video. Crump hosts a show for The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1615,"featured_media":1998819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}