T-Mobile is facing some uncomfortable questions after handing federal investigators six months of a journalist’s call and text logs, roughly 10,000 records in total, using a legal tool that didn’t require a judge’s sign-off.

As reported by The Guardian, The records belong to Georgia Fort, an independent journalist who was arrested and charged after covering a January protest outside a Minnesota church tied to an ICE action. 

Federal prosecutors are pursuing cases against around 40 people connected to that protest, and as part of the investigation, the government went after Fort’s communications using an administrative summons under 19 U.S.C. 1509, a customs-era statute normally reserved for import and duty investigations rather than domestic criminal cases. Because it’s an administrative summons rather than a warrant, no judge needs to approve it, and Fort wasn’t notified or given any chance to challenge it before her records went out the door.

The comparison that’s drawing the most attention: the government tried the same move against Google, seeking similar account information, and Google refused to comply, pushing back and demanding the agency show how the request actually connected to a customs investigation. T-Mobile didn’t put up that fight. 

In a statement, a T-Mobile spokesperson said the company “takes our responsibility to protect customers’ privacy and personal information very seriously” and that requests are “carefully reviewed” and handled “in accordance with the law,” while declining to comment on the specifics of this request.

Press freedom advocates aren’t satisfied with that answer. Caitlin Vogus, senior adviser at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, called the situation “very concerning,” pointing out that even a log of who a journalist called and texted, without the actual message content, can expose confidential sources. 

It’s also not the first time this specific case has drawn scrutiny: a federal magistrate judge separately rejected two earlier warrant applications targeting Fort’s and fellow journalist Don Lemon’s YouTube accounts for lacking probable cause and violating press-protection law before those warrants were withdrawn.

Companies aren’t actually required to comply with a 1509 summons the way they would with a warrant, which is part of why Google’s refusal versus T-Mobile’s compliance has become the center of the story, especially given T-Mobile’s other pending business before federal regulators.

Source: The Guardian