SMALL WINS

Judge Temporarily Lets New York Times Keep Project Veritas Memos

The move comes almost two weeks after a judge ordered the paper to turn the memos over to the conservative watchdog.

The New York Times was granted a partial stay in its fight against Project Veritas on Tuesday, with a New York appeals court allowing the paper to retain the documents between Veritas and its lawyer. However, the Times is still prohibited from reporting on the memos in question. Instead, the appeals court will hear arguments on that portion of the request next month. The court had initially ordered the Times to turn over the memos back over to the conservative watchdog and not publish anything, a move the paper’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, blasted in a statement. “This ruling should raise alarms not just for advocates of press freedoms but for anyone concerned about the dangers of government overreach into what the public can and cannot know,” he said. The group had sued the Times for defamation last year, alleging attorney-client privilege protected the memos from being reported on.