The Associated Press has received the subpoena from GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and is planning to resist it. | Alex J. Berliner/ABImages via AP GOP fundraiser subpoenas AP over hacked emails, setting up legal showdown The impasse comes at a time when political battles are increasingly being waged via leaks of hacked data.

A top Republican fundraiser has subpoenaed the Associated Press for information about the source of hacked emails that formed the basis of recent reports about him, people familiar with the matter tell POLITICO.

The AP has received the subpoena from Elliott Broidy — the subject of several recent articles about his efforts to lobby President Donald Trump and the U.S. government to adopt a hard-line stance against the Persian Gulf state of Qatar — and is planning to resist it, according to the outlet’s director of media relations, Lauren Easton.


The impasse sets up a potential legal standoff over press protections at a time when political battles are increasingly being waged via leaks of hacked data. A copy of the subpoena obtained by POLITICO demands the AP turn over all its information about its sources, including their names, along with information about how the AP obtained the hacked emails.

While several outlets — including the Wall Street Journal and the Hollywood Reporter — have published articles based on Broidy’s stolen emails, the businessman is singling out the AP for a subpoena because of the lengths the outlet has gone to conceal the identity of its sources, according to a person familiar with Broidy’s thinking.

While other outlets have provided Broidy with the original PDF documents they received containing Broidy’s emails, the AP appears to have only provided Broidy with scans of printouts of the emails, according to the person. Original PDF documents contain metadata that can be helpful for forensic analysis when attempting to trace the source of a hack, while scans of printouts lack such metadata.

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The subpoena comes as part of a March lawsuit Broidy brought in a California federal court against the government of Qatar, Republican operative Nick Muzin and Muzin’s firm Stonington Strategies, which has registered as an agent of Qatar. The lawsuit accuses Qatar of hacking Broidy’s emails and alleges that Muzin aided in their dissemination. The AP is not a party to the lawsuit.

In many jurisdictions, journalists enjoy the protection of shield laws, which allow them to block demands for information about their sources. But those laws are weaker in federal court, where Broidy’s case is pending, than in many state courts.

Still, federal law prevents the enforcement of subpoenas of news organizations unless the information is crucial to a case and those seeking the information have exhausted all other means of obtaining it, according to Douglas Mirell, a media lawyer at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles.

For that reason, Broidy faces an uphill battle in convincing a court to implement his subpoena, Mirell said.

“The AP has a strong case for precluding the disclosure of this information,” he told POLITICO.

Laura Handman, a media lawyer at Davis, Wright, Tremaine, added that under certain circumstances, state shield laws can even apply in federal court proceedings.

But in a letter accompanying the subpoena, Lee Wolosky — a lawyer for Broidy who works at the firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner — argued that because Broidy’s emails were obtained illegally by hackers, and because information about the AP’s sources are “crucial to his case,” the outlet does not enjoy such legal protections. Broidy declined to comment.

Broidy’s subpoena also demands the AP hand over documents that belong to the plaintiffs.

Lawyers for Qatar and Muzin did not respond to requests for comment.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, brokered a $1.6 million hush payment from Broidy to a former Playboy model who had become pregnant during an affair. The New York Times has reported that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is scrutinizing George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates who worked closely with Broidy on anti-Qatar efforts, and is examining the possibility that Nader funneled Emirati money into U.S. politics.

On Monday, the AP used the stolen emails as the basis for a lengthy account of Broidy’s and Nader’s efforts to undermine Qatar’s standing in Washington — which included private meetings with Trump and lobbying House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.).