(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A U.S. Attorney has moved to prevent a pro-Second Amendment journalist from reporting information he obtained while covering the controversial AutoKeyCard Case.
U.S. Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor’s proposed gag order against AmmoLand News journalist John Crump stems from a case in which two men convicted of conspiring to transfer illegal “machine-gun conversion devices.”
As Crump has explained, the so-called devices were, in fact, metal cards with an image inspired by a lightning link etched into them. The ATF claimed that the lightning link could be cut out of the key cards and installed in AR-15-style rifles, which would convert them into fully automatic weapons.
Throughout the criminal proceedings of the two defendants—Justin Ervin and Matthew Hoover—Crump pointed out various dubious aspects of government’s case.
According to Crump, four of the witnesses stated that they bought the Autokey Card after seeing it on the CRS Firearms YouTube channel, but they never intended to cut it out. Another witness “nervously testified” that he bought the item to make a machinegun and accused CRS firearms of encouraging his viewers to break the law, Crump said.
“The ATF also admitted that the Bureau assigned twelve agents to collect Autokey Cards from the public before being told to stop by their higher-ups, who thought it was a waste of money,” Crump wrote in April.
“The ATF employees also admitted to taking classes on convincing a jury of their testimony.”
However, a jury still found Ervin and Hoover guilty in April.
Leading up to the sentencing date for the two men, the U.S. government discovered that Crump had apparently obtained a pre-sentence investigation report—a document prepared by probation officers after a defendant is convicted but before they are sentenced.
U.S. Attorney Taylor disclosed that she discovered this because the DOJ was spying on Hoover’s phone calls from jail.
Taylor complained in a Monday court filing that the pre-sentence report is “sealed and intended only to be available to the parties to this case.” She sought a court order for Crump to destroy the report.
In a scathing rebuttal, Crump said Wednesday that he will “fight with every breath in my body, not just for my Second Amendment rights, but also for my First Amendment rights.” Crump filed an emergency motion to intervene on the same day, asking the court to reject the prosecutor’s misguided request for a gag order.
“Even if there were some DOJ rule that restricted a defendant’s dissemination of such a document, it has no application to a non-party journalist’s use of the document to inform and educate the public,” Crump’s attorneys said in the motion.
“Making matters worse, the government’s only justifications for its outrageous request is that one of its attorneys does not appreciate, and asks this Court to bring to an end, the widespread public criticism received due to the government’s unpopular prosecution of this case.”
Crump said Gun Owners of America has stepped in as well and will cover all legal expenses.
“Once again, it looks like an over-zealous ATF has found itself face-to-face with a powerhouse group of patriots and legal minds who will likely remind the government why the Bill of Rights was written in the first place,” he said.
A motion hearing over the matter is set for Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Hoover and Ervin are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 5. Ervin faces a maximum penalty of 110 years imprisonment and Hoover faces a maximum penalty of 45 years.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
