LOS ANGELES, CA – In a phone interview today, Free Speech Coalition (FSC) chairman Jeffrey Douglas told YNOT that yesterday’s meeting in Washington DC between representatives of the adult entertainment industry and officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) marked the establishment of what Douglas hopes will be an ongoing dialogue between the federal agency and the adult industry.Echoing statements he made yesterday, Douglas cited as particularly significant the fact that James “Chip” Burrus, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, “recognized that you cannot regulate an industry that you are not in communication with,” Douglas said.
“The fact that [Burrus] acknowledged that is incredibly important for a long term change in the relationship between this administration and the industry,” Douglas said, adding that the meeting was a “very positive development.”
Douglas emphasized that the meeting was not confrontational and that he felt the FBI got the message that the industry “very much wants to talk to them,” Douglas said.
The importance of communication between the agency and the industry is crucial, Douglas said, in part because the inspection process is completely new to both the industry and the FBI.
Douglas noted that, unlike some other federal agencies, the FBI does not typically conduct any manner of inspection in its capacity as an investigative agency.
“This [the inspection process] is all new for them,” Douglas observed.
As part of establishing the dialogue both sides agree needs to occur, Douglas said that the FBI was “strongly encouraged to communicate with the adult media” by representatives of the industry present at the meeting.
Concerning another recent FBI and adult industry-related development, Douglas reiterated that Tuesday’s inspection of Legend Video’s 2257 documentation by the FBI was in violation of the preliminary injunction granted by Judge Walker D. Miller in the case FSC v. Gonzales.
Douglas said he spoke on the phone to the FBI agent in charge during the inspection, and told “I thought he was inviting a contempt citation,” Douglas said.
Despite being presented with a letter explaining the injunction in the case, and that as both a member of the FSC and purely “secondary producer,” Legend is currently ineligible for such an inspection, the agents continued the inspection, Douglas said.
Although he could not provide specific information on what possible action the FSC in considering with respect to the inspection of Legend’s records, Douglas said “the FSC litigation team will be responding appropriately.”
