Posted on 05/13/2013 5:24:46 PM PDT by Nachum
Edited on 05/13/2013 5:40:13 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
May 13, 2013
Attorney General Eric Holder
Department of Justice Washington, D . C .
Dear General Holder :
I am writing to object in the strongest possible terms to a massive and unprecedented intrusion by the Department of Justice into the newsgathering activities of The Associated Press.
Last Friday afternoon, AP General Counsel Laura Malone received a letter from the office of United States Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. advisin g that, at some unidentified time earlier this year, the Department obtained telephone toll records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to the AP and its journalists. The records that were secretly obtained cover a full two month period in early 2012 and, at least as described in Mr. Machen’s letter, include all such records for, among other phone lines, an AP general phone number in New York City as well as AP bureaus in New York City, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Connecticut, and at the House of Representatives. This action was taken without advance notice to AP or to any of the affected journalists, and even after the fact no notice has been sent to individual journalists whose home phones and cell phone records were seized by the Department.
There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.
That the Department underto ok this unprecedented step without providing any notice to the AP, and without taking any steps to narrow the scope of its subpoenas to matters actually relevant to an ongoing investigation, is particularly troubling.
The sheer volume of records obtained, most of which can have no plausible connection to any ongoing investigation, indicates, at a minimum, that this effort did not comply with 28 C.F.R. §50.10 and should therefore never have been undertaken in the first place. The regulations require that, i n all cases and without exception, a subpoena for a reporter’s telephone toll records must be “as narrowly drawn as possible.’’ This plainly did not happen.
We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news. While we evaluate our options we urgently request that you immediately return to the AP the telephone toll records that the Department subpoenaed and destroy all copies. At a minimum, we request that you take steps to segregate these records and prohibit any reference to them pending further discussion and, if it proves necessary, guidance from appropriate judicial authorities. We also ask for an immediate explanation as to why this extraordinary action w as taken, and a description of the steps the Department will take to mitigate its impact on AP and its reporters.
Given the gravity of this situation, I look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Gary Pruitt
Now that you mention it—how did the IRS story break?
“There is no there, there,...there...or there, there...or there, there, there and there.”
It’s like a Fibonacci series of “there”.
I don’t know.
Around here, we just rely on tales of Jack Bauer and tales from Shakespeare, with a complement of “Live Free or Die Hard”.
The kids have been saying for at least a week, now, “don’t they know that the boss of the operation always whacks everyone in the end?”
Oldest story in the Book.
Dopes.
Sorry I missed it: motive and guest list for pre-presser meeting last week?
Even the kids know. Our representation is clueless.
This was before Benghazi. It is supposedly about a leak into a bombing plot round May 2 of last year, the anniversary of the supposed killing of Osama.
Bump.
Oh yes, the kids know.
They’re going to have to clean up this mess, or at least live in it.
“...secretly obtained cover a full two month period in early 2012...”
“What difference could it possibly make at this time?”
NO ONE expects their creation to turn on them!
(will collect on that virtual beer at your convenience... ;) )
Haunting, isn’t it.
I picture all of them clutching their eyes in the middle of the night with these images in their heads, they thought everything was finally back to normal. Mooch and the kids were ready for their $7 mil summer jaunt to Martha’s Vinyard, and they’re mumbling, “Ben Gurion airport, Ben Gazzara, no! that’s not it, what was it I was dreaming?!”
Ah. They should’ve just read “MacBeth”.
Saves a lot of trouble.
The story of the scorpion and frog come to mind.
It’s too bad 0bama’s bro doesn’t have his own beer brand.
“It’s like a Fibonacci series of “there”.”
ROTFL!
Are we talking “Billy Beer”?
Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev also twigged what Stalin was all about. The journalists created this monster. Now they will be devoured by it.
I hoping that the Billy Carter memorial gas station has available beer so I can tank up before paying my respects to his Sainted Bro.
Oh, man.
Well, let’s hope, for the sake of our children and the brave Ben Ghazi warriors, BO’s admin will be a bad memory like Jimmah (who won’t go away, BTW)
“Commie fight!”
Stand Guard, lets not rule out that this is total deflection. A Wag the Dog moment where the AP has an “Oops” we got it all wrong moment after they sucked the air out of the IRS / Benghazi story.
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