In many states, you can be held in contempt FOREVER. The issue with truecrypt type things is you can never prove it is gone, therefore you can get stuck in contempt with no way to stop it.
If you Google enough, you'll see a guy in jail for contempt for 10 years because the judge didn't believe there aren't hidden foreign assets in a divorce case...
I believe this is only true for civil cases, as indicated in your last sentence regarding the divorce. I found this definition on criminal contempt:
In a criminal contempt charge, which is aimed at punishing bad behavior, a defendant is afforded the due-process safeguards of the criminal system, including a possible jury trial.
I'm not a lawyer, but I would suspect that if Chen is under suspicion for a felony, the above definition might apply.
If they're going after Chen instead of after Chen's source. Then I doubt Chen has protection under contempt laws. I bet he does under the journalist shield laws though
Not if he committed a crime (like receiving stolen property) because if it did, all criminal hackers would get press cards, or stash their data on computers owned by journalists and be able to conceal evidence of their crimes that way.
If you Google enough, you'll see a guy in jail for contempt for 10 years because the judge didn't believe there aren't hidden foreign assets in a divorce case...