Intern Blog

Christine Giardina

FNCU intern

It's not every day that I get the opportunity to chase after individuals being charged of obstruction of justice. Well, I never had that chance – until this week, that is.

As an intern for the Fox News Specials and Documentary team, I was asked to assist the staff on a shoot outside a United States District Court in downtown Manhattan. We were working to get new footage of Farshid Jahedi, former president of the Alavi Foundation who is being charged with obstruction of justice for shredding subpoenaed documents. Currently, the Alavi Foundation is the center of a grand jury investigation due to suspected ties to Iran.

Prosecutors had ordered Jahedi in December not to destroy any documents related to the investigation. Through following Jahedi out of his office building as he was headed for home, the FBI witnessed him discard shredded documents in a garbage can in a parking lot near his home in Ardsley, N.Y.

So, only a short while after the FBI was following Jahedi, I was following him. With two of my staff members and a cameraman, I waited outside the courthouse for Jahedi to walk in with his two lawyers so we could shoot some b-roll for the aired segment.

The stake-out was unlike anything I have ever experienced through my internships at Fox News and Fox Business. Ready to alert the person with the camera, I carefully observed every car that drove near the courthouse to determine if Jahedi could possibly be in the car.

All of a sudden, I noticed two men dressed in suits waiting at the light across the street. Then, someone exclaimed “that's him!” and Jahedi appeared from behind the two men, who happened to be his lawyers. We rushed over towards them. Paul shot the b roll as I served as his guide.

That brief time of nearly 25 seconds was such a rush. After watching the piece that the Specials and Documentaries team had put together and being surprised (to say the least) by the recent events, it was almost unreal to be on the scene.

Through my first couple of weeks here, I have developed a much stronger appreciation for documentary work as I have witnessed the amount of planning, research, and interviewing that is needed for an in-depth piece. I find what they do extremely interesting because they really dig to get past the surface and to the heart of the matter. And this most definitely is an understatement, as I have only been here for a few weeks. I cannot even imagine what's in store for me to learn and explore in the near future - but I'm excited to find out.

Watch the video here!