Investigative Reporter Off the Hook for Daily Fine

Judge Cooper, Catherne Herridge

Ex-Fox News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge no longer faces an $800-a-day contempt fine after a federal judge reversed course Friday, ruling she does not have to keep paying while she seeks review by the Supreme Court. 

She will also be reimbursed the $14,400 she has already paid over the past two weeks.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered the pause on the daily sanction, giving Herridge breathing room as she prepares to ask the nation’s highest court later this month to take up her First Amendment fight over confidential sources. The fine had been imposed for her refusal to identify those sources.

The case arises from Herridge’s 2017 reporting at Fox News on Yanping Chen, a Chinese-American scientist who became the target of an FBI counterintelligence investigation. Prosecutors and lawyers in related civil litigation have sought the identities of Herridge’s confidential sources; she has steadfastly refused, citing the journalist’s privilege and First Amendment protections for newsgathering.

Herridge, a veteran investigative journalist known for her national-security and intelligence reporting, was held in civil contempt after declining to name her sources. The daily fine began roughly two weeks ago. Cooper’s Friday order suspends further payments pending the outcome of her planned Supreme Court petition and directs that the checks she has already written be returned.

Yanping Chen

Legal observers view the temporary relief as a significant procedural win that keeps financial pressure from mounting while the higher courts consider whether journalists can be compelled to reveal confidential sources in this context. Herridge’s legal team is expected to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court later this month, asking the justices to clarify the scope of reporter’s privilege and First Amendment safeguards against forced disclosure.

The underlying dispute traces to coverage of Chen, who has maintained she was unfairly targeted. Herridge’s stories examined aspects of the FBI’s interest in Chen. Courts have so far rejected her privilege claims in the lower proceedings, leading to the contempt finding and the accumulating fines that Cooper has now paused.

Herridge has framed the fight as essential to protecting the ability of journalists to report on sensitive national-security matters without fear that sources will be exposed. Supporters of robust press protections argue that compelling disclosure would chill investigative reporting; critics of absolute privilege contend that courts must balance those interests against the needs of civil litigants and the judicial process.

With the daily fine lifted and reimbursement ordered, attention now shifts to whether the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case and, if so, how it will address the long-standing tension between the free flow of information and the demands of litigation.