Attorney General Eric Holder is tied directly to the Obama administration's targeting of a Fox News reporter. The Justice Department confirmed that Holder personally approved a search warrant for the e-mails of Fox reporter James Rosen; that warrant labeled Rosen a "co-conspirator" in an investigation of a government leak.
The Washington Post reports: “News of the (DOJ) probe (into Rosen) came right after revelations about the Justice Department’s secret subpoena of phone records for the Associated Press, raising questions about the appropriateness of the federal government’s snooping on the media, as well as the fitness of Attorney General Eric Holder to continue in his post.”
This is a direct violation of the United States Constitution. Here is what the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Attorney General Eric Holder signed the original warrant in the Rosen case personally, NBC News reported. After initially saying he did not know anything about it (PERJURY!), Eric Holder finally admitted that he did!
We need a FULL investigation of how an Attorney General cannot only LIE to Congress, but help to rewrite the U.S. Constitution that guarantees “freedom of the press.” Fax Congress today!
Roger Ailes, Fox News President, charged: “The administration’s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.”
President Barack Obama asked Holder to review DOJ guidelines on leak investigations and news organizations. Holder promised a report by July 12. Although there have been renewed calls for Eric Holder to resign, President Obama stood by the embattled attorney general. Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary, told the press corp. said, “It appears Holder testified truthfully.” What?? He said President Obama “absolutely” has confidence in him.
But certainly not the top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee! They openly challenged Attorney General Eric Holder over his testimony three weeks ago in which he claimed to be unaware of any "potential prosecution" of the press, despite knowing about the investigation that targeted the Fox News reporter.
Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., (R-WI) voiced "great concern" in a letter to Holder. They asked many questions about the department's dealings with the press, and pointedly alleged that the Fox News case "contradicts" his testimony at a May 15 hearing.
"It is imperative that the committee, the Congress, and the American people be provided a full and accurate account of your involvement," they wrote.
Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee on May 15, Holder insisted that "the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material" is not something he was involved in or knew about.
But days later, details emerged that the Justice Department did obtain access to the emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen -- after filing an affidavit that accused him of being a likely criminal "co-conspirator" in the leak of sensitive material regarding North Korea. Rosen was never charged, and never prosecuted. But he was effectively accused of violating the federal Espionage Act.
"The media reports and statements issued by the Department regarding the search warrants for Mr. Rosen's emails appear to be at odds with your sworn testimony before the Committee," Goodlatte and Sensenbrenner wrote in the letter to the attorney general. They did not accuse Holder of committing perjury, but noted he was "under oath."
As do we, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called for a special counsel to investigate the Justice Department’s subpoena of Rosen’s phone records saying the attorney general cannot impartially review a decision that he approved. That’s why your fax is absolutely necessary now!
“This is clearly an overreach,” Graham said on Fox News Sunday. “James Rosen is a lot of things, but a criminal co-conspirator he is not. We’re beginning to criminalize journalism and I think that should worry us all.”
Standard DOJ guidelines are that organizations will receive a subpoena. News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, said it is still reviewing whether it has any record of a notification from the United States government involving a subpoena for a Fox News reporter’s phone or email records. Fox News has said it never received a notification from the government.
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Fox News reports: “One of the country's most prominent liberal legal scholars called for Holder to be ‘fired,’ joining the growing list of left-leaning pundits slamming his department's pursuit of journalists' phone and email records.
“Jonathan Turley, an attorney and law professor at George Washington University, hammered Holder in a USA Today column. He charged that Holder has ‘supervised a comprehensive erosion of privacy rights, press freedom and due process,’ aided by Democrats who looked the other way.
“But in the wake of the reporter records scandal, Democrats are starting to join with Republicans in questioning whether Holder continues to be the right man to lead the Department of Justice in President Obama's second term.
“Turley, in his column, referenced a recent call by the Republican National Committee chairman for Holder's resignation. ‘Unlike the head of the RNC, I am neither a Republican nor conservative, and I believe Holder should be fired,’ Turley wrote.”
We could not agree more!
Americans are sick and tired of being lied to by top law enforcement person in the United States! Fast and Furious gun-running . . . IRS Scandal . . . Fox News Reporter Privacy Invasion . . . NSA Scandal---it must be either very difficult or real easy when an attorney general has to lie all the time. Yes – PERJURY is the word!
Sincerely,
Conservative-Daily
P. S. To add, “insult to injury,” Attorney General Eric Holder met privately with news moguls at the Department of Justice to discuss the James Rosen’s case, a rallying cry for conservatives and “lightning rod” journalists concerned about government interference with our First Amendment. Accusations continue to swirl that he lied to Congress. The media executives objected to the DOJ getting permission to snoop on reporters in national security leak cases without notifying their employers, as what happened in the Fox News case. Stubbornly, Eric holder conceded that HE has the authority to ignore certain legal requirements and notify media companies every time records are sought!
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