Judge Pauses Contempt Fines As Catherine Herridge Pursues Appeal

A federal judge clarified that reporter Catherine Herridge doesn’t have to pay an $800-per-day contempt fine as she appeals to the Supreme Court.

The judge, Christopher Cooper, had imposed the fine. She had been found in civil contempt after she declined to reveal the source for her 2017 Fox News stories that reported on a federal investigation of Yanping Chen, a naturalized U.S. citizen who founded the University of Management and Technology in Virginia. 

Last month, Supreme Court declined Catherine Herridge’s emergency effort to block the fines. But Cooper issued a minute order on Friday, writing that he intended to put the fines on hold “Through the denial of any timely-filed certiorari petition or the completion of Supreme Court proceedings should such a petition be granted.” Cooper also ordered the return of any fine payments Herridge has made.

The stories had to do with Chen’s affiliations with the Chinese military. The FBI investigation examined statements she made on immigration forms about her work in China in the 1980s. Chen was not charged, but sued the federal government, claiming that someone leaked information about her to Herridge and Fox in violation of the Privacy Act.