Federal agency initially denied it had investigated Rolling Stone journalist<\/p>\n
Paul Joseph Watson<\/strong> The FBI has tacitly admitted that it possesses documents pertaining to Michael Hastings despite initially claiming that it had never investigated the Rolling Stone journalist, who complained of being under scrutiny by the federal agency in the hours before his death.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicated that the FBI has likely located responsive records pertaining to investigative journalist Michael Hastings, who died in a tragic car accident in Los Angeles in June, and the agency expects to finish processing the records in about three weeks,\u201d\u00a0reports Jason Leopold<\/a>, who along with Ryan Shapiro filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI in an attempt to obtain a any records the federal agency held on the reporter.<\/p>\n When the FBI failed to respond to the initial request, Leopold and Shapiro filed a lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe FBI has completed its search for potentially responsive records and expects to finish processing the records by September 9,\u201d the DOJ response states (PDF<\/a>), confirming that the FBI does indeed have documents pertaining to Hastings.<\/p>\n However, the government\u2019s attempt to delay the release of the documents prompted lawyer Jeffrey Light to argue that there is an \u201curgent need to inform the public regarding records maintained by the FBI about Mr. Michael Hastings.\u201d<\/p>\n The revelation goes a long way to\u00a0confounding claims made by the FBI<\/a>\u00a0shortly after Hastings\u2019 death that, \u201cAt no time was journalist Michael Hastings under investigation by the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n Hastings sent an email hours before his death stating he was \u201conto a big story\u201d and needed \u201cto go off the rada[r] for a bit.\u201d Friends and colleagues confirmed that the journalist was \u201cvery paranoid\u201d about the feds watching him.<\/p>\n According to whistleblower organization WIkileaks, Hastings contacted a Wikileaks attorney \u201cjust a few hours before he died, saying that the FBI was investigating him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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