Judge Explains Letting a Reporter Protect His Source

A federal court on Wednesday unsealed a judge’s opinion from last week explaining why she had issued an order on July 29 largely quashing a subpoena to the writer of a book on the Central Intelligence Agency. The ruling protected the writer –- James Risen, who is also a reporter for The New York Times –- from testifying in the trial of a former C.I.A. official who is accused of leaking information to Mr. Risen about the agency’s effort to sabotage Iranian nuclear research a decade ago.

“A criminal trial subpoena is not a free pass for the government to rifle through a reporter’s notebook,” wrote the judge, Leonie Brinkema of the United State District Court in Alexandria, Va..