In the face of Alharbi’s suit, Beck and his team maintain the information is true, and that they relied on “several confidential government sources in developing the broadcasts”.
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A federal judge has ordered conservative television personality Glenn Beck to reveal two confidential sources from the Department of Homeland Security, who allegedly provided him with information on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Politico is reporting.
Judge Patti Saris ruled Tuesday in a defamation lawsuit filed by Abdulrahman Alharbi, who was injured in the 2013 deadly bombing.
The ethnic Chechen brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were implicated in the bombing. Beck continued to link Alharbi to the attacks in his reports even after the student was publicly cleared by law enforcement, according to Politico.
Alharbi had been a spectator near the marathon’s finish line when two homemade pressure-cooker bombs ripped through the crowd, killing three people and injuring more than 260.
Judge Patti Saris said the court can not determine whether Beck is liable for defamation unless he unveils the identity of two “confidential government sources” he says told him 23-year-old Abdulrahman Alharbi was involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon terrorist attack. Beck said in earlier depositions that he never spoke to the sources, and his producer said he wrote down quotes on Post-it notes that he threw away, according to the ruling. Peter Haley, a lawyer for Alharbi, declined to comment. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death in June 2015.
“Because he was interviewed, he was at that point put on a watch list”, Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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While acknowledging the First Amendment complications of compelling a reporter to name names, Sardis’ order suggested she could limit the impact by restricting how that information was distributed. Representatives for Beck did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
