Attorneys told a Los Angeles federal judge Monday that they are attempting to informally resolve a lawsuit brought by “The Hurt Locker’s” Oscar-winning screenwriter against the U.S. government to try to keep his taped interviews with accused Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl from falling into the hands of military prosecutors.
Attorneys for Mark Boal are seeking to block a threatened subpoena for 25 hours of unedited audio recordings of the author-screenwriter’s discussions with Bergdahl.
Boal’s attorney, Jean-Paul Jassy, and Julia Berman, a Justice Department civil division lawyer, told U.S. District Judge George King that they had been working outside court to settle the case, and would need another day to decide whether to accept a federal magistrate judge to act as a formal mediator.
King suggested the use of the magistrate to assist him because he wanted to make his ruling on the case “sooner rather than later.”
Boal, screenwriter of “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Hurt Locker,” is planning to make a documentary about the U.S. Army sergeant who spent five years as a prisoner of war of the Taliban until his release in May 2014, in exchange for five Taliban prisoners.
Bergdahl is facing charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009.
Lawyers for Boal argue that the recordings are covered by a journalist’s right to maintain the confidentiality of sources and other information.
A subpoena from prosecutors for the material “would invade Boal’s right to gather and publish newsworthy material,” according to the complaint filed in July in Los Angeles federal court.
Bergdahl’s trial is scheduled to begin in February at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
In May 2015, Boal and reporters at the “Serial” podcast co-produced a 10-hour podcast on the case that included excerpts from the tapes.
—City News Service