New Yorker reporter subpoenaed by federal government in criminal trial

Eric Lach, a staff writer for The New Yorker, was subpoenaed by a federal prosecutor on Feb. 15, 2024, to testify about his reporting on a man accused of fraud, extortion and lying to federal law enforcement.

Lach began reporting on Brooklyn preacher Lamor Whitehead in 2022, according to an affidavit. Whitehead stands accused of stealing a parishioner’s savings and defrauding a businessman with claims that he could leverage his ties to Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials for financial gain, The Associated Press reported.

Lach spoke with the preacher several times that December and published an article about Whitehead and his relationship with Adams in January 2023.

The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York subpoenaed Lach just over a week before the criminal trial was scheduled to begin on Feb. 26. The subpoena orders Lach to testify during the trial to authenticate on-the-record statements from Whitehead in the published article.

Attorneys representing Lach filed a motion to quash the request on Feb. 19. In his accompanying affidavit, Lach voiced concerns that being forced to testify could impair not only his ability to report on Whitehead’s trial but his journalistic work generally.

“The prospect of being forced to testify in court about my news reporting is, frankly, chilling,” Lach said in his affidavit. “I often speak to criminal defendants as part of my reporting, and I am confident that criminal defendants — and other sources — will be less willing to speak to me as part of my reporting if they understand that I may be called to testify against them in their trial.”

The motion to quash argued that the subpoena is also highly invasive and would subject Lach to a cross-examination that could jeopardize his confidential reporting.

“In violation of the Department of Justice’s own guidelines, the Government seeks to compel the testimony of a journalist to authenticate a generic, run-of-the mill denial,” the motion said, noting that the statements were made after Whitehead knew he was the target of a government investigation.

The day before the subpoena was issued, the Justice Department released new guidelines for federal prosecutors limiting when they can seek journalists’ records: when the information is crucial for the prevention of a serious crime, when the journalist is the target of the investigation and when the records involve information that is already public.

To address concerns around the potential breadth of the cross-examination, Lach and his attorneys agreed to appear for a private interview with District Judge Lorna G. Schofield on Feb. 26.