Sari Horwitz
The Washington Post
5/13/2013
In a sweeping and unusual move, the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of journalists working for the Associated Press as part of a year-long investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year.
The AP’s president said Monday that federal authorities obtained cell, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor, AP general office numbers in Washington, New York and Hartford, and the main number for AP reporters covering Congress in what he called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into newsgathering activities.
The aggressive investigation into the possible disclosure of classified information to the AP is part of a pattern in which the Obama administration has pursued current and former government officials suspected of releasing secret material. Six officials have been prosecuted so far, more than under all previous administrations…
…“Coming within a week of revelations that the White House lied to the American people about the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targeted conservative Americans for their political beliefs, Americans should take notice that top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee…
The complete article is at The Washington Post.
Update: Holder Tossed Under Bus: White House Says They Knew Nothing of AP Phone Record Seizure
