Lawyers Seek to Shield Twitter Accounts From WikiLeaks Investigation

Lawyers today asked a federal court in Alexandria, Va., to quash the Justice Department's attempt to obtain the records of Twitter users linked to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks.

The department is trying to obtain records associated with several Twitter users, including Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst suspected of passing classified information to WikiLeaks; Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' editor; and several people who have been associated with the organization.

Lawyers for three of those people -- Icelandic lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir, Dutch citizen Rop Gonggrijp and computer security expert Jacob Appelbaum -- argued today that the government's request violated the right to freedom of speech and protection from unreasonable search and seizure. They also questioned the relevance of the requested records to the government's criminal case.

Benjamin Siracusa-Hillman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Jonsdottir, told AOL News that one of the problems with the government's request is that all three account holders used Twitter extensively, and most of their messages had nothing to do with WikiLeaks.

In the case of Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland's parliament, her Twitter account includes messages to constituents about politics. "The fact that the entire record is material is something we are challenging," he said.

An attorney for Gonggrijp declined to comment, and Appelbaum's attorney did not respond to an e-mailed request to comment.

Assange lashed out at the U.S. government, linking the Twitter case to attempts to quell the pro-democracy protests sweeping the Middle East.

"This is an outrageous attack by the Obama administration on the privacy and free speech rights of Twitter's customers -- many of them American citizens," Assange said in a statement Monday. "More shocking, at this time, is that it amounts to an attack on the right to freedom of association, a freedom that the people of Tunisia and Egypt, for example, spurred on by the information released by WikiLeaks, have found so valuable."

WikiLeaks has released thousands of classified documents on the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as secret diplomatic cables. Assange, who is in Britain fighting extradition to Sweden for questioning on sexual assault allegations, has said he fears he will be arrested by the U.S.

The Justice Department is arguing that the records requested have nothing to do with politics, only about a criminal case.

"This is not about association rights," Assistant U.S. Attorney John S. Davis said at the hearing, according to The Washington Post. "This is not about politics. This is about the facts and evidence. It's about the communications among people that might show association."

The case is also quickly garnering high-level level legal attention. WikiLeaks announced Monday that Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz is now involved with the organization's legal defense. Dershowitz's office confirmed his involvement to AOL News, but he was not immediately available for comment.

In the meantime, it's unclear when the judge will rule on the current motions, which include a request to unseal records related to requests the government may have made to other social media sites, such as Google or Facebook.

Siracusa-Hillman said the ACLU has had successes in the past on similar motions but decline to speculate on the outcome of today's hearing.

"We are hopeful, but I think we'll leave it up to court to make its ruling," he said.