# Journalist Investigating Homeland Security has Confidential Files Seized **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 25, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254 "2013-10-25T22:36:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/1 "2013-10-25T22:36:14Z")
Here is something that as I write has only been mentioned at very few sites; these situations are becoming so common that they are not news anymore. Audrey Hudson is a journalist doing whistleblower type stories on Homeland Security. Audrey Hudson’s husband, Paul Flanagan, was found guilty in 1986 to resisting arrest in Prince George’s County. Naturally 18 years later law enforcement get a warrant called for police to search the residence they share and seize all weapons and ammunition because he is prohibited under the law from possessing firearms. They do a 4:30 am SWAT team raid, and naturally one of the law enforcement officers was from the Coast Guard (part of Homeland Security) as well as the Maryland State Police. “But without Hudson’s knowledge, the agents also confiscated a batch of documents that contained information about sources inside the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, she said.” > **[Exclusive: Feds confiscate investigative reporter’s confidential files during...](https://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/exclusive-feds-confiscate-investigative-reporters-confidential-files-during-raid/)** > > Reporter Audrey Hudson fears inside sources have now been exposed Undoubtedly these people inside Homeland Security must be selling illegal guns to Mr. Flanagan–can anyone think of an alternative explanation? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/2 "2013-10-25T22:55:10Z")
Some of those confiscated items which looked like paper documents could have been cleverly disguised firearms. You never know. ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/3 "2013-10-25T23:00:44Z")
Since when is it a Felony to resist arrest anyway? I mean that charge is so nebulous as to be almost meaningless. Sounds like they were really after her notes and documents, not to be paranoid, but come on. **The Reaver(Capt)** ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/4 "2013-10-25T23:05:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Some of those confiscated items which looked like paper documents could have been cleverly disguised firearms. You never know. They heard all that talk about 3D printers making guns, and got confused. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/5 "2013-10-25T23:29:43Z")
Hopefully she covered her ass and had multiple paper and electronic copies of that information. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/6 "2013-10-25T23:39:11Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Hopefully she covered her ass and had multiple paper and electronic copies of that information. That isn’t going to help her sources, though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/7 "2013-10-26T01:48:32Z")
All I can say is that thank god we have a Department of Homeland Security. Without them on the job, who would protect the Department of Homeland Security? ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/8 "2013-10-26T02:02:28Z")
Just stopping to test my psychic powers. Here’s my prediction: when this story finally comes out completely (assuming it does), the actual events will turn out to be very different than told in that article. That whole article reeks of “we’re only hearing one side of something.” ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/9 "2013-10-26T02:18:16Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Just stopping to test my psychic powers. Here’s my prediction: when this story finally comes out completely (assuming it does), the actual events will turn out to be very different than told in that article. That whole article reeks of “we’re only hearing one side of something.” When will people stop giving these bastards the benefit of the doubt? Under Obama, John Kirakou got punished while the people torturing innocent civilians got off scott free, and Manning got a harsher prison sentence than the entire unit of rapists and torturers at Abu Ghraib put together. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/10 "2013-10-26T02:34:39Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Just stopping to test my psychic powers. Here’s my prediction: when this story finally comes out completely (assuming it does), the actual events will turn out to be very different than told in that article. That whole article reeks of “we’re only hearing one side of something.” Your doubting the high-minded journalistic integrity of the Daily Caller? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/11 "2013-10-26T07:32:34Z")
They’re talking about this over at [Popehat](http://www.popehat.com/2013/10/25/feds-confiscate-investigative-reporters-confidential-files/) too. (ETA: Although, to be sure, they got their story from that Daily Caller story.) ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/12 "2013-10-26T13:29:16Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > That isn’t going to help her sources, though. I can hear it now, “it was months after the search warrant, and they were still finding bodies all over…” ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/13 "2013-10-26T22:35:00Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I can hear it now, “it was months after the search warrant, and they were still finding bodies all over…” I mean the likely whistleblowers who are going to lose their jobs, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/journalist-investigating-homeland-security-has-confidential-files-seized/672254/14 "2013-10-26T23:29:53Z")
> [@America, no longer the land of the free?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/america-no-longer-the-land-of-the-free/672295/4): > > [The Coast Guard has admitted their involvement:](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/conservative-reporter-says-feds-took-her-files-while-searching-home-guns/70941/) > > > [@The US Coast Guard](#): > > > > The documents were reviewed with the source agency and determined to be obtained properly through the Freedom of Information Act. > [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > I mean the likely whistleblowers who are going to lose their jobs, etc. So, FOIA documents, no whistleblowers involved. There’s still a lot of stink of the actions of the USCG (and possibly TSA), but the initial reports appear to be…misleading (at best). Sorry, I should note that Grumman’s quote is from the [other thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=706055) on this subject.