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
Well, we all should know why the Democratic Party of America is upset with the AP...they are looking for their mole (patriot), who leaked the info that the government was attempting to hide - leaked that an Al Qaeda IED was found/intercepted here in the United States and the government was hiding that fact.
http://www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2013/Govt-obtains-wide-AP-phone-records-in-probe
Poor AP thought the crocodile would eat it last.
Same thing is going to happen to the homosexuals and women.
“Ink-by-the-barrel” works when honorable men like Woodward are directing the press...
“Ink-by-the-barrel” works when honorable men like Woodward are directing the press... ( and yeah, I know he’s a liberal)
A comfy chair.
I wasn’t expecting that.
t
Vince Flynn does seem to publish before the fact—I’ve noticed this too.
****
As a certified masochist, I am rereading Orwell’s 1984, published in 1949. He certainly could foretell the future, too.
))))
It will take a while for this 'factoid' to resonate with commentators. That is: the Justice Dept/Obama WH got angry with American reporters when an Al Qaeda operation against America was exposed.
Just where do Obama's and Holder's loyalties lie?
The AP scandal was a trap for former GOP folks. Did you hear Brennan say he had briefed them “before they went on the weekend talk shows”?
I wonder if they caught anyone in the trap?
They aren't fools because at the end of the day, they know damn well they are going to get away with it.
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