The subpoena, which was withdrawn weeks later, also demanded any similar material from MSNBC involving another journalist who contacted The New York Times on behalf of the newspaper hacker after the break-in, then wrote about it for an online publication.
Under guidelines from the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft or his deputy must personally approve any subpoenas sent to journalists, and Barbara Comstock, director of the Office of Public Affairs, must review such requests. But senior Justice officials on Ashcroft's staff at headquarters said they were unfamiliar with the MSNBC subpoena, and Ms. Comstock said she did not review it.
"If that's true ... they violated their own policy," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
The subpoena, signed by an assistant U.S. attorney from New York, represents at least the second time since 2001 the Bush administration has tried to compel journalists to turn over information related to a criminal probe.
Herbert Hadad, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney James B. Comey Jr. in New York, declined to discuss it.
The Justice Department last year obtained the personal phone records of Associated Press reporter John Solomon after he wrote about a federal wiretap of Sen. Robert Torricelli.
MSNBC's lawyer, Yuki Ishizuka, said it was unclear whether federal prosecutors will resubmit the subpoena, but the company has recently warned some reporters not to delete e-mails that might be connected to the case.
Ishizuka said the subpoena, withdrawn in mid-May, demanded from MSNBC reporter Bob Sullivan any e-mails or notes about conversations about the newspaper's computer break-in with cracker Adrian Lamo and Kevin Poulsen, now an online journalist.
Copyright 2002. Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
