WASHINGTON – The Justice Department grabbed a trove of information about Fox News correspondent James Rosen in an effort to try advance a leak investigation, it was revealed today – including tracking the reporter’s movements inside the State Department with a government-issued ID pass.
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The feds also got access to Rosen’s phone records and got a warrant to examine his personal email account, the Washington Post reported today, citing a court affidavit.
The effort to track the prominent reporter was part of the case ongoing against State official Jin-Woo Kim.
It comes just a week after the Associated Press revealed that DOJ had obtained a sweeping subpoena that provided two months’ worth of phone records for 21 different phone lines used by 100 journalists as part of a separate investigation into another leak.
The government’s case against Kim began after Rosen reported in an online story about US intelligence official warnings that North Korea would likely respond to US sanctions with additional nuclear tests.
As parts of the government’s investigation, The FBI tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of State, and matched them up against Kim’s movements, according documents that include the statements of an FBI agent.
The data about the movements, gleaned from State’s security system, were used to try to establish that the two had a “face-to-face” meeting off campus, according to the affidavit.
It isn’t known how many other people left and entered the building at about the same time, which occurred just after noon, when many people eat lunch.
Both Fox News and the Post are owned by News Corp.
The affidavit, includes a statement by FBI agent Reginald Reyes that there was evidence Rosen broke the law “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”
“We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter. In fact, it is downright chilling,” said Fox News executive VP Michael Clemente. “We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”
A range of members of Congress condemned the government’s sweeping examination of the AP’s phone records last week.
President Obama said at a press conference he made “no apologies” for the leak investigation, saying national security leaks “put people at risk.”