The Justice Department used a secret subpoena to obtain two months of phone records for Associated Press reporters and editors without notifying the news organization, a senior department official told NBC News, saying the step was necessary to avoid “a substantial threat to the integrity” of an ongoing leak investigation (LINK).
The seizure of the phone records, disclosed earlier Monday by AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt, is the latest move in a series of high profile and controversial investigations of leaks of classified information by the Justice Department. In a letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder, Pruitt said obtaining more than two months of AP phone records on 20 separate telephone lines without prior notice was a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into news-gathering operations.
It also drew a swift rebuke Monday from members of Congress and freedom of the press watchdogs, one of whom called the move “Nixonian.”
When this story is combined with the furor over the IRS targeting conservative political groups and the issues involving the Benghazi disaster, the Obama administration is truly under fire. On the surface this seems far worse than the actions taken by President Richard Nixon, who resigned before being impeached.
The news media, which overwhelmingly endorsed President Obama in his two campaigns and often acted more like a paid PR arm, now has to deal with his administration investigating individual reporters. It is a grievous error that strikes directly at the issue of Freedom of the Press.
According to NBC, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., revealed in a letter to the AP on Friday that federal prosecutors obtained the records. The letter did not give a reason for obtaining the records, but Machen is conducting an investigation into the leak of classified information about a foiled terror plot in Yemen last year. An AP story last spring reported details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.
In his letter to Holder, Pruitt said the seized phone records were from early 2012 and included phone lines for AP bureaus in New York, Washington DC, Hartford, Connecticut and the AP line at the House of Representatives. He said the records seized also included those from the home phones and cell phones of individual journalists.
“We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news,” Pruitt said.
The actions of the Obama administration totally infuriated host Jon Stewart (below), who says the actions of the Obama administration validates many of the wild claims by conservative groups over the years of government intrusion.
THIRD WORLD LEADER
1. Tapping phones of the media.
2. Using the tax authority to harass your political enemies.
3. Covering up foreign policy failures.
These are all consistent with what happens in the Third World. We have a Third World leader. He’s not above buying votes, issuing executive orders, intimidating the Supreme Court, etc. I am surprised by none of it.
Soon, he may suspend the Constitution (due to the war on “terror” (i.e., terrorism)), dismiss Congress and the Supreme Court, and go on vacation.
And millions of Americans will wonder, …… “Who will be the next American Idol?”
CRITICIZING ADMINISTRATION
My elderly parents have been the target of threatening letters by the Census Bureau for failing to fill out the long form questionnaire that is full of personal questions that are nobody’s business. Failure to comply subjects them to prosecution and a fine of $5000.
Now they’re wondering if they were selected for that form because of the multiple letters they’ve written to the White House criticizing the positions of the Obama Administration. They’ve also given small amounts of money to a couple of the organizations that have been targets of IRS abuse.
I doubt there’s any reason to target a middle class elderly couple, but considering what we know now, it makes me wonder.
WILL BLOW OVER
I happened to hear Limbaugh comment on this issue yesterday.
I agree with him that this will blow over. The media may harrumph that its feathers have been ruffled, but given their “slobbering love affair” with the prez, this will disappear, and the talking points will move to the issue that Obama and Holder had to do something because that stupid George Bush and the Republicans got us into the middle of a war (we didn’t start), and our leaders had to mightily fight back.
And the sheep known as readers and viewers will wait for the return of “24″.
Sad.
OBAMA STILL MORMON
You have that right. Because for them (the media) to do what they’d do if it was a republican, you’d have an impeachment or resignation - and they love him too much for that.
Just think, if you removed the names and the locations, this could be typical news coming out of Caracas last year. This is how the Democrats will retain control. The low-information voters still think Barack Obama is a mormon.
TURNED ON HIS CREATOR
As I read on another blog:
“the media invented obama, and then he turned on his own creator”
Obama will grant a few fawning TV personalities an interview where is makes one false claim after another, the fawning TV person will not ask one follow up nor challenge him, and all will be good.
I have a real hard time getting worked up over the AP and others “outrage”. They haven’t been doing their job for years now.
MAKES NIXON VIRTUOUS
It would be bad enough if the 3 scandals under scrutiny now were the only 3. They are not.
The media gave the Obama administration a complete pass on the EPA thuggery abuses that were documented and admitted.
The media gave the Mafia Prez and Holder a pass on Fast and Furious. The media gave the Prez and the Dems a pass for all the distortions and lies they promulgated in the run up to and campaigning for obamacare because they wanted (ideologically) the outcome we got.
Obama makes Nixon look like a paragon of virtue. Tricky Dick was guilty of talking about using the IRS against his enemies…..though no evidence ever came to light that he DID.
RE-EXAMINE PENTAGON PAPERS CASE
I published an article in the American Intelligence Journal (National Defense Univ) last year that calls for the courts to re-examine The U.S. vs. The New York Times, aka, The Pentagon Papers. I made a new case for the press to be restricted from publishing classified information. I feel the Pentagon Papers is outdated as a legal precedent and the press should be challenged anew in court on Wikileaks type publications. The current legal precedent is based on the Pentagon Papers, which is very different from Wikileaks. There is much stronger national security case to be made for the AP issue and Wikileaks, than there ever was for The Pentagon Papers. I do not support what the Obama Administration did to investigative the leaking of classified information. A better approach is to challenge the actual publication of classified material in court. It would take a lot of courage to go after the NYT et al, again.