Action News 5 - Memphis, TennesseeFBI asks judge to reconsider order in Withers case

FBI asks judge to reconsider order in Withers case

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The FBI has asked a federal judge in Memphis to reconsider an order directing the agency to produce an index of records of informant Ernest Withers. The FBI has asked a federal judge in Memphis to reconsider an order directing the agency to produce an index of records of informant Ernest Withers.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - The FBI has asked a federal judge in Memphis to reconsider an order directing the agency to produce an index of records of informant Ernest Withers.

He was a civil rights-era Memphis photographer who has been confirmed by FBI documents as an informer.

District Judge Army Berman Jackson ruled Jan. 31 that Withers' role with the FBI was confirmed in records released by the agency in 2008.

According to The Commercial Appeal, the FBI argues that information about confidential informants is not releasable through the Freedom of Information Act unless the agency first officially confirms an individual as an informant and not through inadvertent disclosure.

Withers, who died in 2007, was known as "the civil rights photographer" for iconic images of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Information from: The Commercial Appeal.

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