A back-and-forth between the Tennessee Attorney General’s office and the Davidson County District Attorney’s office has been stoked by an investigative piece by NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams alleging unlawful practices by Nashville’s top prosecutor.
In a NewsChannel 5 story released last week, Williams details how the DA's office has been outfitted with audio-enabled security cameras, suggesting the office could be violating federal and state wiretapping laws. Following the report, NewsChannel 5 discovered through a public records request that state Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has notified the DA of his intention to open a criminal investigation into the allegations of wiretapping. But in a letter to Skrmetti and Deputy Attorney General Scott Sutherland, Funk explains that these cameras are necessary for the security of the office.
“One of our security measures is to have essentially ‘Ring Cameras’ at the front doors of our office,” Funk writes. “We have discussed our security measures with Deputy Attorney General Janet Kleinfelter of your office and have worked with her over the last 3 months responding to FOIA requests without compromising security.”
Funk details the many reasons he believes the security cameras to be necessary, including frequent “credible, imminent and life threatening” threats. He goes on to explain that as recently as two weeks ago, an assistant DA received threats of physical and sexual violence from a former defendant.
Williams’ investigation calls the security cameras “eavesdropping devices,” and says their installation was confirmed by the company that installed them. The story points to laws that make it a crime to “record conversations of unsuspecting individuals in places where they think they are alone.” While signage in the DA’s office indicates that people are being recorded, Williams’ story makes claims that the signage does not do enough to make it clear that people's conversations are not private.
In the letter, Funk admonishes Skrmetti for his office’s comment on Williams’ story that they “are aware of the allegations and take them very seriously.” It is fairly uncommon for the AG’s office to comment on ongoing investigations, and Funk says their doing so “is being used to validate baseless slander and undermine the trust of the District Attorney’s office.”
Funk is an elected Democrat in a deeply red state, and the scrutiny around his office is high. Measures such as his decision to no longer prosecute simple marijuana possession — citing his desire to instead dedicate resources to prosecuting violent crime — along with other progressive policies frequently draw the ire of the state’s Republican supermajority.
This is not the first time Williams has investigated Funk. In August 2020, a multi-year libel lawsuit against Williams and NewsChannel 5 by Funk came to an end. The suit was over a 2016 story by Williams that included allegations of bribery made during the deposition of a civil case. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed following NewsChannel 5 agreeing to "restate the facts from our previous reporting."
