US News

House panel ‘lying’ in wait for AG

HOT WATER: Attorney General Eric Holder’s testimony under oath is being questioned. (
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WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee is probing whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath to Congress about his agency’s surveillance of journalists, sources said yesterday.

“The committee is looking into his testimony,” said a congressional aide.

The examination is focused on Holder’s May 15 testimony to the committee when he claimed to have no involvement in Justice Department pursuit of journalists on spying charges.

“In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material — this is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy,” Holder said in sworn testimony.

But the Justice Department admitted last week that Holder personally signed off on an FBI warrant to snoop on Fox News reporter James Rosen’s private e-mails and phone records.

“The Department takes seriously the First Amendment right to freedom of the press,” the agency said in a statement Friday, noting that the warrant was authorized “at the highest levels of the department, including discussions with the attorney general.”

The warrant even labeled Rosen an alleged “co-conspirator” in leaking national security secrets, which is a violation of the Espionage Act that Holder had ruled out using against journalists.

Phone records for Rosen, Fox News’ Washington bureau and Rosen’s parents’ home on Staten Island also were seized, according to court documents in a leak investigation targeting State Department contractor Stephen Kim, who allegedly fed Rosen information about North Korea.

Holder provided the testimony before the Justice Department’s pursuit of Rosen was made public. His May 15 testimony was in response to outrage over his agency secretly seizing phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.

His testimony, however, directly related to the Espionage Act being used against journalists — as it was in the investigation of Rosen.

The 2010 search warrant that Holder approved described Rosen as an “aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in an alleged violation of the Espionage Act. It stated there was “probable cause to believe that the reporter has committed or is committing a violation” of the law, and said Rosen’s e-mail account contained “evidence, fruits, and instrumentalities of that violation.”

Rosen was never charged with a crime, and Fox News defended his actions while slamming the government’s snooping on him.

Potential accusations that Holder lied to Congress is just his latest headache.

At the behest of President Obama, Holder is set to launch a review as soon as this week of Justice Departments policies for investigating journalists.

The review was organized before the revelation that Holder was directly involved in the warrant targeting Rosen. At that time, Obama said that the department appeared to have “overreached” in going after journalists.