Reporter sues over access to McCain vehicle crash records

Vanity Fair magazine and the National Security News Service filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in federal court earlier this month seeking records related to a 1964 vehicle accident involving then-Navy Lt. John McCain.

According to the complaint, filed Oct. 16 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, National Security News Service reporter Christopher Law, who is also working with Vanity Fair for this story, requested duty logs from July 24 and 25, 1964 at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. Those logs would indicate whether McCain, now the Republican presidential candidate, was a patient there.

“Plaintiffs and Vanity Fair have developed from first-hand sources information indicating that Lt. McCain was involved in an automobile accident on Hampton Boulevard outside the main gate of the Naval Base at Norfolk, VA in July 1964,” the complaint said. 

“Plaintiffs’ investigation has disclosed that responding civilian law enforcement officers recall the accident, that another person was injured, and that a Naval officer dispatched a messenger to take a change of clothing to Lt. McCain at Portsmouth Naval Hospital,” it continued.

According to the Huffington Post, the news groups are looking into whether the other person died of his or her injuries.

The Navy denied Law’s FOIA request on privacy grounds, prompting Law to file the lawsuit.