WASHINGTON — Lawmakers skewered Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday over the Justice Department’s sweeping effort to snoop on Associated Press reporters and editors — while the embattled Cabinet secretary kicked responsibility down the chain of command.
Holder was in the hot seat for hours of testimony before the House Judiciary Committee just days after the scandal broke, telling lawmakers that his deputy, James Cole, was the one who authorized the sweeping subpoena that caused an uproar in both parties.
“It’s an ongoing matter and an ongoing matter in which I know nothing,” Holder said.
Holder says he recused himself from the matter completely — but in an embarrassing admission, he said he hasn’t found a written record of that action.
“I thought it would be inappropriate . . . to be a person who was a fact witness in the case to actually lead the investigation,” he said, noting that he had been interviewed as one of a small number of officials with access to secure information that was leaked.
The subpoena grabbed two months’ worth of phone records from AP reporters and editors in an effort to track down the leaker for a story about a CIA-disrupted bomb plot.
“When you recused yourself, was it orally?” asked Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.). “Do you not do that formally or in writing?”
“No,” Holder answered. He later allowed that, “Putting these things in writing might be the better practice.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any acceptance of responsibility at the Justice Department for things that have gone wrong,” fumed Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).
In the hearing’s most heated moment, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) grilled Holder on a separate matter, the nomination of a Holder deputy, Thomas Perez, as labor secretary, over Perez’s handling of a fraud case.
The two talked over each other as Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-GOP) attempted to referee. Holder called Issa’s questioning “unacceptable” and “shameful.”