Eric Holder signed off on Fox News, James Rosen monitoring, calls for resignation begin
Attorney General Eric Holder personally signed off on the warrant that allowed the Justice Department to search Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal email, NBC News’ Michael Isikoff reported.
The report places Holder at the epicenter of this controversial clash between the press and the government.
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The warrant he approved named Rosen as a “co-conspirator” in a leak investigation, causing many to warn that the Justice Department was potentially criminalizing journalism.
The warrant also approved the tracking of Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, as well as his communications with his source, Stephen Kim.
The Justice Department later said that it did not intend to press any charges against Rosen.
“The Department takes seriously the First Amendment right to freedom of the press,” the department said in a written statement, provided late Friday at the start of the holiday weekend. “In recognition of this, the Department took great care in deciding that a search warrant was necessary in the Kim matter, vetting the decision at the highest levels of the Department, including discussions with the Attorney General.
“After extensive deliberations, and after following all applicable laws, regulations and policies, the Department sought an appropriately tailored search warrant under the Privacy Protection Act. And a federal magistrate judge made an independent finding that probable cause existed to approve the search warrant,” the statement said.
While there have been calls for Eric Holder to resign, this new implication may generate even a louder outcry.
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Obama = Colonel Clink!