informer's privilege

The government's privilege to withhold from disclosure the identity of persons who furnish information on violations of law to officers charged with enforcement of that law. Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 59, 77 S.Ct. 623, 627, 1 L.Ed.2d 639.

In the exercise of its power to formulate evidentiary rules for federal criminal cases, the Supreme Court has consistently declined to hold that an informer's identity need always be disclosed in a federal criminal trial or in a preliminary hearing. McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 312, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 1063, 18 L.Ed.2d 62.

A defendant is entitled to a veracity hearing if he makes a substantial preliminary showing that an affiant knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, included in a warrant affidavit a false statement necessary to the finding of probable cause. However, the deliberate falsity or reckless disregard whose impeachment is permitted is only that of the affiant, not of any nongovernmental informant. Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 171, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2684, 57 L.Ed.2d 667