{"id":2704051,"date":"2026-11-12T09:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnvidia-scandal-shows-why-scotus-must-allow-catherine-herridge-to-protect-her-sources\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T09:12:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:12:45","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnvidia-scandal-shows-why-scotus-must-allow-catherine-herridge-to-protect-her-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnvidia-scandal-shows-why-scotus-must-allow-catherine-herridge-to-protect-her-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Must Allow Catherine Herridge To Protect Her Sources"},"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\">18<\/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%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnvidia-scandal-shows-why-scotus-must-allow-catherine-herridge-to-protect-her-sources%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=2704051&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--><p>Two weeks ago the New York times linked Nvidia CEO Jensen huang to a Chinese businesswoman alleged to have passed intelligence to Beijing; Huang admitted an affair and congressional committees sought briefings. The article warns the Privacy Act can be weaponized: Yanping Chen sued federal agencies claiming leaks spawned fox reports by Catherine Herridge that cost Chen DoD funding. Herridge refused to name sources, faced sanctions, and appealed to the Supreme Court; <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >senators argue forced disclosure undermines national security<\/a> and congressional oversight. The author urges protecting reporter confidentiality to preserve sources and security.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cNvidia Chief Seen as Target of Chinese Spy Plot,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/10\/29\/us\/politics\/nvidia-china-jensen-huang-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">headlined<\/a> the New York Times article from two weeks ago that broke news of a relationship between the chip maker\u2019s founder and a Chinese businesswoman, who, according to the article, \u201cwas found to be passing intelligence to Beijing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of Nvidia, has <a href=\"https:\/\/nvidianews.nvidia.com\/news\/a-message-to-our-company\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted<\/a> to an extramarital affair and apologized for his conduct. Nvidia\u2019s Board of Directors has also announced an independent investigation. <\/p>\n<p>The Times\u2019 reporting further prompted the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignaffairs.house.gov\/news\/press-releases\/chairmen-mast-moolenaar-and-crawford-request-jensen-huang-brief-congress-on-link-to-chinese-intelligence-asset\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">request<\/a> Huang \u201cappear before their committees for a joint, closed-door briefing on Huang\u2019s interactions with Megaspeed executive Alice Huang, a publicly reported People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) intelligence asset, and NVIDIA\u2019s security protocols against foreign adversary espionage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It will be some time before the public learns of the depth and seriousness of this scandal, but this recent reporting should serve as a wake-up call to another stealth threat to our national security \u2014 the weaponization of the Privacy Act.<\/p>\n<p>For some four years, Yanping Chen has aimed the tip of the Privacy Act spear at Catherine Herridge, the renowned national security journalist. Herridge, then Fox News\u2019 Chief Intelligence Correspondent, reported on an FBI counterintelligence investigation into Chen, who at the time ran the University of Management and Technology (\u201cUMT\u201d) in Northern Virginia, where, among others, many members of the U.S. military completed coursework.<\/p>\n<p>In her Privacy Act lawsuit, Chen alleged federal government employees leaked FBI records pertaining to an investigation of Chen to \u201cone or more employees or agents of Fox News.\u201d Chen alleged that as a result of the allegedly \u201cillegal leak or leaks of Dr. Chen\u2019s private information to Fox News, three Fox News reports were published and broadcast, leading to the destruction of Dr. Chen\u2019s livelihood and the termination of the University of Management and Technology\u2019s participation in DOD\u2019s Tuition Assistance program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Herridge served as the senior journalist for the three Fox News reports that formed the basis of Chen\u2019s lawsuit. Among other things, one Fox News segment reported \u201cChen had lied on her immigration forms about whether she had previously worked for the Chinese military.\u201d According to the complaint, one Fox News report \u201calso displayed images of personal photographs seized from Dr. Chen\u2019s home during the FBI search\u201d \u2014 left unsaid by Chen was that the picture showed her wearing a Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army (\u201cPLA\u201d) military uniform. Chen also complained that the reports included \u201cdata taken from, and images of, Dr. Chen\u2019s immigration and naturalization forms . . .\u201d <\/p>\n<p>However, much of the information included in Herridge\u2019s reports came from an informant who spoke with the national security journalist or from details contained in a search warrant affidavit filed on the public docket. According to Herridge\u2019s pending Supreme Court petition \u2014 more on that shortly \u2014 that search warrant affidavit included nearly all the details included in the Fox News reports, with the exception of the images displayed by the network of Chen\u2019s immigration forms, wherein she denied ever belonging to the Communist Party, and the photographs depicting Chen in her PLA uniform.<\/p>\n<p>The Fox News expos\u00e9 of Chen also included Herridge\u2019s on-camera interview of Stephen Rhoads, a former UMT employee turned FBI informant. Rhoads told Herridge that Chen said she had been a PLA colonel and had told him to lie about it to a grand jury. Rhoads also told Herridge that UMT collected information about U.S. servicemembers\u2019 military histories that could be accessed remotely, while the Department of Defense paid the school Chen founded between $250,000 and $300,000 a month through its tuition assistance program. Herridge also interviewed Peter Mattis, an expert on the Chinese military, who explained why the PLA might value those personnel records UMT collected. <\/p>\n<p>Following Herridge\u2019s reporting, in 2018, the Department of Defense suspended tuition payments to UMT on \u201cnational security\u201d grounds. Chen responded by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/8452745\/chen-v-federal-bureau-of-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">filing<\/a> a Privacy Act claim against the FBI, DOJ, DoD and DHS on December 21, 2018. <\/p>\n<p>Unlike a case alleging defamation, to prevail on her Privacy Act claims, Chen need not prove that the information Herridge published was false. Instead, Chen must only establish that a federal agency \u201cintentionally or willfully\u201d disclosed a \u201cprotected record,\u201d and that the disclosure caused a financial harm.<\/p>\n<p>Among other things, Chen argued that Herridge\u2019s reporting prompted the Department of Defense to drop the university Chen founded from its tuition-assistance program, financially paralyzing the school. While Chen did not sue Herridge, Chen subpoenaed Herridge as part of her Privacy Act case against the government, arguing she needed Herridge\u2019s testimony to prove that a member of one of the federal agencies sued had intentionally (or willfully) disclosed her immigration paperwork and the photograph of Chen in her PLA uniform. <\/p>\n<p>In August of 2023, the district court ordered Herridge to sit for a deposition, which she did, but Herridge nonetheless refused to reveal her source (or sources) to Chen. The presiding judge, Christopher Cooper, later held Herridge in civil contempt of court, ordering her to pay $800 per day for refusing to disclose to Chen how she had obtained the immigration papers and photographs, although Judge Cooper stayed the fine pending an appeal.<\/p>\n<p>On appeal, the D.C. Circuit, in September 2025, upheld the lower court\u2019s decision that Herridge must identify her source (or sources) to Chen. The Supreme Court would later refuse to stay the fine and Herridge paid over $14,000 in sanctions before the district court put the fines on hold pending the completion of any Supreme Court proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>Herridge then turned to the U.S. Supreme Court, filing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/26\/26-461\/428714\/20261007122400796_Petition.Herridge.pdf\">petition<\/a> for review in the high court on August 20, 2026. The petition details the many important reasons why the Supreme Court should grant the petition, including the fact that it has been over fifty years since the justices weighed in on a reporter\u2019s privilege \u2014 and even then, only in the context of a criminal case. Since then, Herridge\u2019s petition stressed that the lower courts have crafted a variety of standards for assessing whether a journalist may be forced to reveal a confidential source.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, a handful of amicus curiae, or friend-of-the-court, briefs hit the docket supporting Herridge\u2019s petition for review. While several media organizations filed briefs stressing the importance of confidentiality to their professions, it was the brief submitted by Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Cynthia Lummis that proves particularly significant in light of the New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/10\/29\/us\/politics\/nvidia-china-jensen-huang-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">coverage<\/a> of the affair between Huang and Alice Huang, the latter of whom the Times claimed passed \u201cintelligence to Beijing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In their amicus brief, the trio of senators argued that the Supreme Court should take Herridge\u2019s appeal because the lower court\u2019s decision failed to give any weight to the fact that it was ordering the release of the identity of government sources to Chen \u2014 an individual who had self-identified as a PLA colonel and whose school the Department of Defense axed from its tuition-benefit program on national security grounds. <\/p>\n<p>Led by Cruz, the legislators further argued in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/26\/26-461\/432080\/20261106131536231_2026.11.06%20Br.%20of%20Senators%20as%20Amici%20Curiae.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">amicus brief<\/a> that allowing Chen to use the Privacy Act to obtain this information represents a further threat to national security because it will leave whistleblowers hesitant to speak with the press for fear of being outed. \u201cCongress\u2019s oversight of the Executive Branch,\u201d the brief stressed, \u201cdepends in part on the press.\u201d \u201cMembers, including amici, learn of waste, abuse, and security lapses from reporters like Herridge,\u201d the senators continued, adding: \u201cA rule that lets any investigation\u2019s subject unmask those sources through civil discovery will dry up that reporting, and with it impede Congress\u2019s critical oversight of executive agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And this brings us back full circle to the Nvidia scandal. According to the New York Times\u2019 reporting, \u201cAmerican spy agencies\u201d had surveilled Alice Huang, with U.S. officials reportedly concluding \u201cshe was a Chinese intelligence asset, funneling information to Beijing.\u201d This reporting prompted both Nvidia and two House committees to launch investigations into the situation.<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, after the Times\u2019 role in the Russia-collusion hoax, it is difficult to trust the legacy outlet\u2019s reporting. That is particularly true here given the story had a get-Trump taste to it, with the authors writing \u201c[r]oughly a year ago, Mr. Trump was briefed about the intelligence findings, which have not been previously reported, and chose not to do anything with the information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But assume for the moment that the New York Times\u2019 reporting is accurate: Under the currently standing Herridge precedent, a plethora of federal agencies could still face a lawsuit for violating the Privacy Act, and a judge could force the New York Times to reveal its sources. Now, that is unlikely, because unlike Chen, Alice Huang is not a U.S. citizen and the Privacy Act \u2014 with limited exceptions \u2014 only protects citizens and lawful permanent residents. And given the scandal, it is unlikely the embattled Nvidia CEO would want to file suit. <\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, the entire Nvidia scandal illustrates the importance of confidential sources, not merely to journalism, but also to our national security, for without an assurance of confidentiality, it is unlikely sources will speak to the press.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz, Lee, and Lummis understand that reality and so does Catherine Herridge. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will too.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist\u2019s senior legal correspondent. Margot\u2019s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press.     She is also a regular guest on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-alito-freakout-is-a-false-flag-operation-to-take-down-the-court\/\" title=\"Democrats are falsely targeting Alito to undermine the ...\">nationally syndicated radio programs<\/a> and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.      Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.       Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments\u2014her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nvidia chief linked to alleged Chinese spy plot report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2704052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-261.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[5157,71616,87768,6994],"class_list":["post-2704051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-journalism","tag-press-freedom-2","tag-protect-sources","tag-scotus"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-261.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704051","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\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2704051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2704055,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704051\/revisions\/2704055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2704052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2704051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2704051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2704051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}