What I Said at Today's Josh Wolf Press Conference

There is absolutely no reason why Josh Wolf should be in prison right now. Judge Alsup had an opportunity to let him out and with a stroke of absolute arrogance he denied a motion for his release without even a hearing. The issue before him was simply this: at a certain point so-called "coercive confinement" becomes punishment, and that point was reached long ago in this case.

In fact the only reason Josh was ever incarcerated for a single day was because of the politically-motivated choices of the U.S. Attorneys Office and a flawed system that gives prosecutors and grand juries excessive powers and allows abusive situations like this one.

However, even accepting the U.S. Attorney’s malevolence
and the flawed system, Josh could have joined us today. Just because grand juries have the power to call witnesses and ask a judge to incarcerate someone who doesn't fully cooperate and just because the judge has the power to find that witness in contempt and keep that person there for the life of the grand jury does not mean that a judge has to do those things. The motion before Alsup did not require a denial - in fact it is based on precedent that suggests Josh should be freed. Yet Judge Alsup made the choice to continue wasting tax payer dollars to incarcerate a completely harmless independent journalist who is missed by his family and friends. This is hardly surprising since Alsup has bizarrely lectured Josh in open court about the privilege we all enjoy of a free press and the need to cooperate with the Federal Government as thanks for that freedom. While the U.S. Attorneys office must be held responsible for their actions against activists and journalists, Judge Alsup - who does not answer to Alberto Gonzales - should not be let off the hook.

The National Lawyers Guild is concerned about the increasingly repressive activities of the federal government. We believe that human rights ought to be regarded as more sacred than property interests. We support Josh because we believe that his right to be free from incarceration and his right as a journalist ought to carry much more weight in our courts than the bogus interests the Federal Attorneys claim they are trying to protect.