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WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from both parties unloaded on the Obama Justice Department yesterday for authorizing a sweeping info-grab of reporters’ phone records as part of a national-security-leak investigation.
Attorney General Eric Holder said it wasn’t his decision to authorize the seizure of two months’ worth of records from The Associated Press. He had recused himself from the investigation, having himself been interviewed as part of the leak probe, the agency revealed.
Instead, Deputy Attorney General James Cole authorized the subpoena. Cole wrote the head of the AP yesterday, arguing that the subpoenas were “limited in both time and scope” and undertaken only after 550 interviews had occurred.
“This was a serious leak, a very, very serious leak,” Holder told reporters yesterday. “It put the American people at risk, and that is not hyperbole, it put the American people at risk, and trying to determine who was responsible for that, I think, required very aggressive action.”
In a story last May, the AP revealed the CIA’s disruption of an al Qaeda plot based in Yemen to blow up a US-bound plane.
The feds seized records for 20 different phone lines — including the line used by wire-service reporters in the press gallery inside the House of Representatives — to monitor up to 100 reporters and editors, the AP revealed Monday.
The AP yesterday blasted the move as an overreach.
“We’re distressed that the Justice Department felt the need to seize our records and not tell us about it,” AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll told MSNBC. “None of us have seen anything like this.”
Lawmakers from both parties criticized Justice’s explanation.
“The overreach and breadth of the subpoena for the documents are staggering. And I think it’s going to make it very difficult for reporters to do their jobs,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
“I don’t know who did it or why it was done, but it’s inexcusable. There is no way to justify this,” fumed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) even wants to haul Holder before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “You can’t be free if you’ve got government monitoring your calls and interviews,” he said. “How is that free press?”
In a combative briefing with reporters, Press Secretary Jay Carney said the White House had “no knowledge” of the subpoena and was “not involved” — and that it would be “wholly inappropriate” if it were.
President Obama feels strongly that, “We need the press to be unfettered in its pursuit of investigative journalism,” Carney said.
But he emphasized Obama also is mindful of the “need for secret and classified information to remain secret and classified in order to protect our national security interests.”
Additional reporting by Gerry Shields