Politicians leak confidential information to the news media all the time. It’s how democracy works.
The Pentagon Papers was an illegal leak that redefined how the country viewed the Vietnam War. Daniel Ellsberg, who copied and released that classified report, is now seen as a hero.
The Washington Post could never have broken the Watergate story without a confidential source known as “Deep Throat,” who leaked internal information about the Nixon Administration.
Presidents from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump have tried to crack down, and it’s never worked. Trump is now going to extraordinary lengths, including banning reporters from most of the Pentagon, to keep information under his control; it won’t work.
I’ve been in this business for more than 40 years, and City Hall is no different than Washington: Reporters have confidential sources who give them information, sometimes for political reasons, sometimes to promote their vision of good and honest government, and reporters and editors sort out what’s relevant, what’s planted for someone’s agenda, and what’s newsworthy.
That’s how local media works in a democracy.
So it’s unusual, at best, and possibly unprecedented, for City Attorney David Chiu to be investigating the office of a sitting supervisor over the leak of a confidential memo on the legality of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s move to force intoxicated people into a holding center without formal charges.
Somebody with access to the memo—and we are talking at least 50 people here, maybe more—gave a copy to Mission Local. The paper’s story undermined the move by the mayor, supported by Sup. Matt Dorsey and approved in a 9-2 vote.
In fact, it was a bit of an embarrassment to Dorsey, who had to tell his colleagues to support a proposal that the city’s own lawyer said was legally dubious, at best.
Dorsey has now joined Chiu in pushing for an investigation into the leak, and is focusing on the office of Sup. Jackie Fielder. According to the Chron:
Chiu wrote in a letter to the board that whoever leaked the memo could face significant penalties, “including discipline or termination for an employee and removal from office for an elected official.”
Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who frequently clashes with Fielder politically, has been the most vocal supporter of the leak investigation. “Attorney-client privilege is sacrosanct,” Dorsey said. “If a single supervisor or staffer leaked it, it is serious and it has to be taken seriously.”
The Chron, ironically, reported that Fielder’s office is under investigation—based on information from a confidential source.
That is, a leak.
The idea that the Chron, which is still a news outlet, would in effect side with Dorsey and Chiu in an investigation that undermines the entire principle of the First Amendment and the right of reporters to have confidential sources is more than disturbing. It’s a disgrace.
The fact that Chiu is even conducting an investigation is a disgrace, and the Chron and every other reputable news outlet ought to be denouncing it.
Former Sup. David Campos, who was a deputy city attorney, general counsel to the School District, and for eight years a member of the board, told me that in all his time serving the city, he has never seen the City Attorney’s Office conduct an investigation of a leaked document.
I’m pretty sure that it’s never happened in my career as a City Hall reporter.
In 2010, Campos, then on the board, introduced legislation to block juvenile justice officers from turning over to ICE young people arrested for, but not convicted of, crimes.
Then-Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill. The supes overrode the veto. Newsom announced he wouldn’t follow the law.
This all, of course, wound up in the City Attorney’s Office, which issued a memo, and Newsom’s Office leaked that memo to the press.
Dennis Herrera was the city attorney. He wrote a note to all involved reminding them not to leak confidential memos. That was it; no “investigation” of Newsom, no attempt to figure out the source of the leak.
Nobody has been able to give me a single example since then of the City Attorney’s Office taking any action on leaked documents. Not one.
Fielder’s Office has formally denied leaking the memo; a whole lot of people had access to it. The idea that Dorsey and Chiu are going after Fielder is so out of line with anything I’ve ever seen at City Hall that I can’t call it anything but a political vendetta.
The Chron should be ashamed to be part of this.
