Disciplinary office ignores complaints over journalist raid

Back in February, we filed a disciplinary complaint against Gordon Kromberg, the assistant U.S. attorney who signed the warrant application authorizing the FBI’s raid on the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson. Our complaint was straightforward: Kromberg’s application never mentioned the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that limits searches of journalists’ files and devices. Omitting adverse authority violates a prosecutor’s duty of candor, especially in warrant application proceedings with no one present to speak up for the rights of the warrant’s subject. The Virginia State Bar, however, declined to investigate. It reasoned that it was up to the judge, not the bar, to decide whether Kromberg misled the court by omitting the PPA from his warrant application. Tha…