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"I thought that when I switched to academia, that this was the slow lane," said Feldstein, the director of GW's journalism program. "I thought I was done with subpoenas and search warrants, and low and behold the FBI is knocking at my door even here."
Federal investigators have recently questioned the professor as part of an investigation into former newspaper columnist and muckraker Jack Anderson's documents to locate possible classified files relating to a case involving two Israelis accused of espionage. Anderson's documents are currently located at GW as a result of Feldstein's close relationship with Anderson, now deceased, and his family. Feldstein said the documents are at an undisclosed location and under surveillance of GW security to ensure that no one can go through the files.
"Normally, you want to cooperate with the FBI, but this is a really fishy case by the FBI. I've been through the records, there's nothing that I have seen that involves any ongoing criminal activity," he said.
Debbie Wireman, a spokesperson for the FBI's Washington field office, believes the FBI has the proper rights to search through Anderson's documents.
"The FBI has information to the effect that there are classified documents contained in Mr. Anderson's papers," Wireman said. "It is incumbent that we're directed by law that if a citizen has in his or her possession classified government documents, then that material needs to be returned to the property of U.S. government."
Feldstein interned for Anderson early in his career, but that was not his first job in journalism. Having an interest in reporting from a young age, Feldstein worked on his high school newspaper and then the Harvard Crimson at Harvard University. He later entered broadcast journalism as an investigative reporter for WUSA-TV, CNN and ABC News.
"I dug up the muck wherever it was for some local stations and then at the networks so I exposed every type of wrongdoing I could find," Feldstein said. "Social welfare abuses, political corruption, corporate crimes, government and bureaucratic bungling. If it was there, I tried to dig it out."
