NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal magistrate has allowed a defense attorney to subpoena records from a New Orleans news organization about comments anonymously posted on its website, the latest response to a scandal that led to the resignation of the region's top federal prosecutor. 
 
 U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Wilkinson on Tuesday approved the subpoena request by a lawyer for former New Orleans Affordable Homeownership executive director Stacey Jackson, who was indicted last year on federal charges including theft and bribery. 
 
 NOLA Media Group, which operates The Times-Picayune newspaper and its companion website, has 10 days to respond to the subpoena. Jackson's lawyer, Edward Castaing, said Wednesday that he plans to serve NOLA Media Group with the subpoena this week. 
 
 A Times-Picayune report on Wednesday said the news organization's usual policy is to keep such information private "to the extent possible." NOLA Media Group lawyer Lori Mince said Wednesday that she hadn't discussed the subpoena with the news organization yet and didn't know how it would respond. 
 
 Former U.S. Attorney Jim Letten resigned in December 2012 after two of his top deputies acknowledged posting anonymous comments on nola.com about cases handled by their New Orleans-based office. 
 
 Jackson's lawyer, Edward Castaing, wants to know whether other law-enforcement personnel who haven't been unmasked yet have posted anonymous comments on nola.com related to his client's case. 
 
 Castaing asked to subpoena any records that would identify the authors of comments posted on nola.com under the user names "aircheck" and "jammer1954." He said the content of the comments indicate "government inside action" and efforts to pressure suspects to cooperate with prosecutors. 
 
 In September, a different judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana cited allegations of "grotesque" prosecutorial misconduct in ordering a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of charges in the deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt said the comments that federal prosecutors anonymously posted on nola.com created a "carnival atmosphere" that perverted justice in the case against the former officers. 
 
 Jackson is scheduled to be tried in May on charges she took kickbacks from contractors for the agency that she oversaw. Jackson served as NOAH's executive director during former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's administration, which hired the nonprofit agency to run a home repair program after Katrina. ||||| The attorney for former New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Director Stacey Jackson is seeking private information from NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune about two anonymous online commenters. 
 
 U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Wilkinson granted a request Tuesday (Jan. 21) from Jackson, who faces federal corruption charges, to subpoena NOLA Media Group for information related to two specific online handles, "aircheck" and "jammer1954," including names, addresses and phone numbers. 
 
 It is the news organization's usual policy to keep such information private to the extent possible. 
 
 
 
 After several anonymous online monikers were traced to former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone and former First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann, leading to the resignation of then-U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, federal authorities asked the organization to turn over information on 11 additional online handles. In that case, the company's lawyers objected to providing the information, asking the federal authorities to demonstrate they have a basis for seeking the information. 
 
 Jackson's attorney Eddie Castaing first sought to review a series of reports prepared by Georgia prosecutor John Horn after Perricone's and Mann's commenting activities were uncovered. That investigation was conducted at the request of U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt, who last September cited prosecutorial misconduct as the reason for granting a new trial for the five former New Orleans police officers convicted in the Danziger Bridge shootings following Hurricane Katrina. 
 
 Wilkinson denied Castaing's request for access to the documents after personally reviewing the Horn report. But in an order issued in December, Wilkinson singled out three handles, "aircheck," "jammer1954" and "campstblue" -- the latter moniker traced to Perricone -- as authors of "the most egregious" comments left under an Aug. 8, 2008 article about a grand jury investigation into Jackson's actions at NOAH, a New Orleans program to pay contractors for gutting and other work on Katrina-damaged houses. 
 
 Wilkinson cites several comments in his order, including one by "jammer1954" that reads, "Mark my words. The canaries are going to start singing, and Car 54 is going up in smoke. Stacey Jackson is going to rat out every one, every body, and every thing to make the best deal for herself-after all she did this as chief of NOAH so her behavior isn't going to change. RayRay is going down, as is Cedric and who knows who else." 
 
 Wilkinson wrote in the order that although the Horn report materials make no reference to "aircheck" or "jammer1954," if indeed those handles are traced to law enforcement or the Justice Department, it "might lead to the conclusion that there was a pattern, policy or practice of pre-indictment prosecutorial misconduct in the accusatory process material to Jackson's defenses alleging violations of her due process rights." 
 
 Since Perricone and Mann were identified as authors of online comments about open federal investigations, two other Justice Department employees have been traced to online monikers. Karla Dobinski, a trial attorney in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., posted comments on NOLA.com under the name "Dipsos." An FBI agent has also been identified as the author of comments on NOLA.com, though neither the agent's identity nor his or her online moniker has been made public. 
 
 The order gives NOLA Media Group 10 days to hand over the requested materials. 
 
 
 
 ||||| A federal judge Tuesday ordered a New Orleans newspaper to turn over information about anonymous commenters on its website in a case related to an investigation into prosecutorial misconduct in the famous Hurricane Katrina bridge shootings case. 
 
 The order came in the federal criminal prosecution of Stacey Jackson, formerly the executive director of New Orleans Affordable Homeownership, who has been accused of misusing federal funds before and after Hurricane Katrina for personal benefit through a kickback scheme. 
 
 Jackson petitioned the court to order NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune to turn over the commenters' identities after it came to light in a separate case that members of the U.S. attorney's office were posting anonymous comments online, slamming the New Orleans Police Department and commenting on the case of five police officers who were convicted of shooting civilians on a New Orleans bridge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Inside newsrooms) 
 
 In September, a judge ordered a new trial for the officers in light of the prosecutorial misconduct. 
 
 Jackson's attorneys last week filed a motion asking the court to allow a subpoena of NOLA.com after a report into the bridge shootings incident tied prosecutors to the pseudonyms of two online commenters who also posted negative comments about Jackson. 
 
 On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Wilkinson granted the request, giving NOLA.com 10 days to produce information about the commenters' identities. The news organization's policy is to keep such information private, usually. 
 
 The ongoing investigation has been a black eye on the U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans and led to the resignation of a high-profile lawyer known for taking on corruption who had been the longest-serving U.S. attorney in the country. 
 
 Read more about: First Amendment, Media, New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina
– A judge in New Orleans has given the Times-Picayune website 10 days to turn over the identities of two online commenters, reports Politico. The judge agreed to the request by the lawyer for Stacey Jackson, former head of the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership program who is facing federal charges of corruption. Jackson's legal team apparently thinks the anonymous commenters were federal attorneys who posted comments about Jackson and her case on NOLA.com, possibly to pressure suspects into cooperating with them, reports AP. It's not clear whether the Times-Picayune will comply, but a news story in the paper about the judge's ruling suggests the policy is a little squishy: "It is the news organization's usual policy to keep such information private to the extent possible." If this rings a bell, it's because there's a precedent in New Orleans. US Attorney Jim Letten had to resign in 2012 after two deputies admitted that they posted comments at the site about cases. In the most high-profile example, five officers convicted in deadly bridge shootings after Hurricane Katrina were granted a new trial because of the "prosecutorial misconduct."