US DOJ lawyer hit with bar complaint over search of reporter’s home

A senior official at the United States Department of Justice, Michael J. Singer, became the subject of a formal ethics complaint filed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation with the Washington D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility on Monday. The grievance alleges that Singer and his legal team misled a federal court to obtain a search warrant used in the 2021 raid of journalist Tim Burke’s Florida home. The investigation centered on Burke’s acquisition of unaired outtakes from a Fox News interview with Kanye West, which legal advocates argue was a protected act of journalism rather than a criminal exploit. The complaint asserts that the Department of Justice deliberately omitted crucial context regarding Burke’s role as a member of the media when applying for the warrant. By characterizing the journalist as a common hacker, the DOJ allegedly bypassed the rigorous internal protocols and legal protections—such as the Privacy Protection Act—that are designed to shield newsrooms from government intrusion. This tactical exclusion, the filing argues, resulted in the seizure of vast amounts of sensitive editorial material and confidential source information that should have remained privileged. This legal challenge highlights an escalating tension between national security investigations and the First Amendment. Press freedom advocates contend that the raid on Burke’s residence set a dangerous precedent by criminalizing the standard practice of gathering information from publicly accessible web servers. While the DOJ maintains that the access was unauthorized, the bar complaint seeks to hold individual prosecutors accountable for what it describes as a "bad faith" effort to circumvent established judicial guardrails that protect the free press in the United States.