Legal Question in Criminal Law in District of Columbia

Re: Government LEO's taping one-on-one converstions between employee and supervisor

Here is the D.C. Law

D.C. Code Ann. � 23-542: It is legal to record or disclose the contents of a wire or oral communication where the person recording is a party to the communication, or where one of the parties has given prior consent, unless the recording is done with criminal or injurious intent. A recording made without proper consent can be punished criminally by a fine of no more than $10,000 or imprisonment for no more than five years. However, disclosure of the contents of an illegally recorded communication cannot be punished criminally if the contents of the communication have "become common knowledge or public information."

Anyone who illegally records or discloses the contents of a communication is subject to civil liability for the greater of actual damages, damages in the amount of $100 per day for each day of violation, or $1,000, along with punitive damages, attorney fees and litigation costs. D.C. Code Ann. � 23-554.

Re: Government LEO's taping one-on-one converstions between employee and supervisor

Probably. DC like Virginia is apparently a so-called one party jurisdiction where only the consent of one of the parties to a conversation is necessary in order to tape it.

Maryland, however, in contradistinction to her two adjoining jurisdictions, requires the consent

of both parties.(Linda Tripp wasn't aware of that when she illegally taped a conversation between herself and Monica Lewinsky as few years back regarding a certain prominent politician.)