Remember that Meet The Press high capacity magazine story from earlier this year? Well, it’s still alive…sort of…it’s gone to the world of FOIA requests and lawsuits. The Washington Times’ Emily Miller writes about it…
Mr. Levine’s letter provided new information, such as that the source of the “high-capacity” magazine. “Meet the Press briefly borrowed the empty magazine from a private citizen who lives outside of the District of Columbia and who ‘Meet the Press’ understood possessed the magazine lawfully,” he wrote.
The NBC lawyer also claimed, “The magazine was immediately returned to its owner following the broadcast.”
However, according to a police “property record” document, a Kay Industries 30-round magazine was recovered from Mr. Gregory (at a redacted address) as part of an active investigation. The document is signed on Jan. 9, two days after Mr. Levine said the magazine had been returned to its owner.
The lawyer’s letter also sheds light on the way NBC blatantly violated the law.
On Sunday Dec. 23, Mr. Gregory held up the illegal magazine to illustrate the anchor’s position in an interview with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
His lawyer’s excuses to the prosecutor were that, “NBC incorrectly interpreted the information it received from [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and MPD. It believed that the display of an unloaded magazine not attached to any firearm during a news interview would not be objectionable.”
The police documents show there was no confusion. At 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 21, a NBC producer, whose name was redacted, emailed MPD this: “Meet the Press is interviewing a person on the show this Sunday in studio -Producers for the show would liek [sic] to have a clip (standard and high power), without ammunition in studio to use on the show. There will be no gun, no bullets, just clips. Is this legal?”
At 9 p.m., someone at MPD — again, the name was blacked out — replied: “No, possession of high capacity magazines is a misdemeanor under Title #7 of the D.C. Code. We would suggest utilizing photographs for their presentation.”
Filed under: MSNBC
