United States District Court, District of Columbia.

“ If a newsman believes that the grand jury investigation is not being conducted, in good faith he is not without remedy. Indeed, if the newsman is called upon to give information bearing only a remote and tenuous relationship to the subject of *205 the investigation, or if he has some other reason to believe that his testimony implicates confidential source relationships without a legitimate need of law enforcement, he will have access to the court on a motion to quash and an appropriate protective order may be entered. ”

“ For example, the defendants claim that the prosecutors are victims of Count Twenty-three of the indictment because it charges certain of the defendants with developing a plan to deceive the Assistant United States Attorneys investigating this case. In fact, Count Twenty-three charges the defendants with a conspiracy to obstruct justice. The victims of such a charge may include, to a limited extent, members of the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. In a sense, the victim of such a charge is our entire system of justice. ”

“ In order to meet the evidentiary threshold to merely obtain an entrapment instruction in the District of Columbia, there must be a foundation in the evidence in the light viewed most favorably to the accused, for a finding of inducement by a government agent, that is persuasion, fraudulent representations, threats, coercive tactics, harassment, promises of reward, pleas based on need, sympathy, or friendship, and any other government conduct which would create the risk of causing an otherwise unpredisposed person to commit the crime charged. ”

“ The Supreme Court has rarely spoken with greater clarity. Once it is determined (as it has been in the instant case) that the Movants' actions fall within the "legitimate legislative sphere," judicial inquiry is at an end. Otherwise, Members of Congress conducting investigations would be forced to consider at every turn whether evidence received pursuant to the investigation would subsequently have to be produced in court. This would "imperil" the legislative independence protected by the Clause. ”

“ The established principle is that suppression of the product of a Fourth Amendment violation can be successfully urged only by those whose rights were violated by the search itself, not by those aggrieved solely by the introduction of damaging evidence. ”

“ On defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings, and plaintiff's motion to amend the complaint, the District Court, Revercomb, J., held that: (1) "discovery rule" exception to statute of limitations was available to plaintiff, even though defendants were not licensed psychologists or psychiatrists; (2) when plaintiff's cause of action accrued under discovery rule was jury question; and (3) allegation of negligent infliction of emotional distress failed to state a claim, in absence of allegation of physical injury. ”

“ As you know, pursuant to 26 USC § 6103, tax returns and return information are confidential and disclosure is strictly prohibited except as specifically authorized. Even if disclosure is authorized, the Internal Revenue Service and its employees are not authorized to release defamatory, incorrect, false and misleading information. Criminal penalties are imposed against officers or employees of the United States who intentionally make unauthorized disclosures of returns or return information and civil damages can be recovered from the United States. ”

“ The incorporating regulation does not specify that only certain provisions of the text in ASTM D 1298-99 (2005) are incorporated by reference into law, nor does it indicate which specific provisions of the standard are relevant for regulatory compliance, suggesting that “a greater amount of the standard’s text might be fairly reproduced.” Id. Fourth Factor: Defendant’s reproductions have not had a “substantially adverse impact on the potential market for the originals,” nor have Plaintiffs shown by a preponderance of the evidence that there is a meaningful likelihood of future harm.” ”

“ The asserted claim to privilege should be judged on its facts by the striking of a proper balance between freedom of the press and the obligation of all citizens to give relevant testimony with respect to criminal conduct. ”

“ First, the Court finds that the inclusion of legal means in a list entitled "illegal means" is prejudicial and irrelevant and should be stricken. The government is correct in asserting that an overt act need not be illegal; however, the Court finds that inclusion of legal acts under a heading of "illegal means" would be prejudicial and misleading. The defendants request that the legal means be struck. ”

“ Defendants argue that plaintiff's history of mental health treatment and seven week hospitalization ought to establish that she knew or should have known of her injury more than three years before the filing of her complaint. The Court finds this argument conclusory. The Court is aware of the rule that an objective standard is employed under the discovery rule to determine when a "reasonable person" with plaintiff's factual knowledge knew or should have known of the possible injury. ”

“ In the alternative, Wolfe contends that the government should be compelled to elect between Count Twenty-four and the false declarations counts. According to Wolfe, the charge of false declarations is a lesser-included offense of the obstruction of justice charge, and it would be inherently unfair to force the defendant to proceed to trial on multiple counts. The Court is not persuaded by this argument. Requiring defendants to stand trial on an offense as well as lesser-included offenses is standard practice and has been upheld by every court that has faced the issue. ”

“ The Court has already heard testimony from numerous eyewitnesses to the briefing. The Court has also heard testimony from an FBI agent who testified with the assistance of notes made during the briefing and another agent who testified from notes made within a short period of the briefing. Any testimony the reporter could offer would be merely cumulative and less than the best evidence available. There plainly are alternative means to obtain information about the briefing and the testimony of the reporter would be far less than necessary to a fair resolution of this case. ”

“ Scientology personnel failed to indicate the location of those offices to the agents. The size of the complex is enormous. The agents had a duty to prevent the destruction of evidence. Together, these circumstances made a degree of confusion reasonable. In light of all these factors, the Court finds that the agents, in their search of the Cedars Complex, acted reasonably and in good faith. Thus, the geographical scope of the search did not render it general or exploratory.
The defendants also contend that any searches except for those of filing cabinets were outside the scope of the warrant. ”

“ Thus, the court finds that the incorporated standard provides information essential for a private entity to comprehend its legal duties. which weighs heavily in favor of permitting Defendant’s reproduction. See ASTM, 896 F.3d at 450. Second Factor: The “express text of the law falls plainly outside the realm of copyright protection.” ASTM, 896 F.3d at 451. Here, the standard is incorporated into law without limitation such that “the consequence of the incorporation by reference is virtually indistinguishable from a situation in which the standard had been expressly copied into law.” ”

“ The Court concludes otherwise. Nowhere in the letters did plaintiff demand payment from the IRS. The letters concluded with requests for information, not with requests for compensation. The letters therefore were not "claims," for under the FTCA " [i] t is plain that the required 'claim' is something more than mere notice of an accident and an injury. The term 'claim' contemplates, in general usage, a demand for payment or relief, and, unless it is a claim for something, is no claim at all." ”

“ The absence of any stake in the ventures of others made a single conspiracy unlikely. In this case, the government alleges a single objective: to illegally locate and obtain information in the possession of the United States which relates to the Church of Scientology and to individuals, organizations, and agencies perceived to be enemies of the Church of Scientology. The alleged conspirators are all allegedly members of the Church. Their interest in advancing the Church's interest would be assisted in each of the three conspiracies as described by the defendants. ”

“ The nature of the "professional" relationship is clearly as important as the question of licensure under District law, including the consideration of such factors as whether the "professional" holds himself out as possessing special knowledge not possessed by laymen, and whether the client relies on such assurances, including assurances that there was no wrongdoing on defendant's part. ”

“ It is most unfortunate that the information which came to the government in this case required that searches be conducted by numerous agents, for long hours, in buildings owned by a Church. However, the fourth amendment cannot become so inflexible that criminal activity can be completely insulated from our criminal justice system by the talismanic invocation of religion. We can only hope that never again in our history will the government be required to perform such an unseemly task.
The Court has examined the documents that the government intends to submit during its case in chief. ”

“ According to Wolfe, Count Twenty-four is defective because it merely charges the defendant with false declarations and fails to charge the defendant with the additional element of "obstruction to the court in the performance of its duty." ”

“ Defendants make a subsidiary argument that plaintiff's delay in filing suit has prejudiced them since the time lapse has caused defendant to mislay a document plaintiff would have signed at the time of her "training" acknowledging that defendants' employees are not licensed professionals. Since the plaintiff does not dispute her awareness of this fact, and since the Court does not find it dispositive of the discovery rule argument, the fact that delay has made it impossible for defendants to produce this document is not prejudicial. ”

“ The issue before the Court in Branzburg was whether requiring newsmen to appear and testify before state or federal grand juries abridges the freedom of speech and press guaranteed by the first amendment. ”

“ The three factors the court in Yates focused on to decide that case were: (1) the reliability of the statement; (2) whether the evidence was peripheral or devastating; and (3) whether the witness is equally available to the prosecution and the defense. Id. On the facts before it, the court found that the evidence was unreliable: "Clearly, *89 grave doubts exist as to the sincerity of the self-serving statement," Id., it found that it was far from peripheral, and that the government could have granted Jones immunity to make him available to the defense. ”