Inquisitr
written by Staff
May 20, 2013
James Rosen reportedly was not the only Fox News Channel correspondent that was spied on by the Obama Justice Department according to report from Megyn Kelly and Shannon Bream (see embed below) on “America Live” today. Reporter William LaJeunesse and producer Mike Levine may have also been separately targeted in connection with leaks in the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.
The US Department of Justice secretly went after Rosen for gaining access to confidential information from a State Department official about North Korea. Google reportedly coughed up Rosen’s Gmail messages to the government. “Investigators looking into disclosures of sensitive information about North Korea got Rosen’s telephone records and a warrant for his personal emails but also used his State Department security badge to track his movements in and out of that building.” Rosen was named as a co-conspirator in the application for a 2010 search warrant that just surfaced.
Rosen was never notified of the search warrant; nor was Fox News. There is a limited exception to the notice requirement under the law if the government can provided a connection to national security. “Rosen was not charged with any crime, but it is unprecedented for the government, in an official court document, to accuse a reporter of breaking the law for conducting the routine business of reporting on government secrets.”
Fast and Furious was a botched Obama administration operation that allowed firearms to fall into the hands of drug cartels and resulted in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and many others. According to the Megyn Kelly/Shannon Bream report, quotes from LaJeunesse and Levine’s emails appear in an Inspector General’s narrative about the scandal. It has not been determined how those messages showed up in the report.
The Justice Department is also under fire for secretly snooping on phone records of Associated Press reporters. “The case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, the government adviser, and James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, bears striking similarities to a sweeping leaks investigation disclosed last week in which federal investigators obtained records over two months of more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the Associated Press.”
Fox News executive Michael Clemente has this to say about James Rosen revelation: “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. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”
Unlike what happened in either the Rosen or AP cases, which were both handled in secret, Megyn Kelly pointed out that in general the procedure would be for the government and the news organization to appear in court to argue for or against access to the information in question pursuant to a subpoena. A judge would then decide how much, or how little, information the organization would have to release to authorities.
As it stands, the Fox and AP developments implicate potential First Amendment freedom of speech/freedom of the press violations along with a lack of due process. Details are still unfolding.
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The Washington Times
written by David Sherfinski
Wednesday May 22, 2014
Fox News anchor Bret Baier says that in addition to seizing the phone records of Fox reporter James Rosen, the Department of Justice seized the records of his parents as well in another twist to the still-unraveling saga.
“We said the different numbers; we have the documents now, the seized … records relate to James’ parents’ home in Staten Island,” he said on “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
On Monday, news reports said the Justice Department seized phone records and emails sent to a private account of Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, Mr. Rosen, in an investigation into a 2009 story about U.N. sanctions and North Korea’s nuclear program.
In court filings, the department even said Mr. Rosen may have aided and abetted in a crime by trying to pry the information, which was classified, from his source.
The government is prosecuting a State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a North Korea analyst, for revealing secrets to the news organization. He is awaiting trial. No charges have been filed against Mr. Rosen.
Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker reported Tuesday that Ronald C. Machen Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is prosecuting the case, seized records “associated with two phone numbers at the White House, at least five numbers associated with Fox News, and one that has the same area code and exchange as Rosen’s personal-cell-phone number (the last four numbers are redacted).”
The Justice Department has come under fire for the recent disclosure that it subpoenaed the phone records from 20 Associated Press phone lines, used by up to 100 reporters. The Justice Department sought the AP’s phone records in an investigation into who leaked information that embarrassed the administration last year, exposing that it had been working to thwart a terrorist attack at a time when officials said they had no specific knowledge of any plots.
CBS News reporter Sheryl Attkisson, who has writing frequently on the botched “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scheme, told a Philadelphia radio station Tuesday that her personal and work computers have been “compromised,” and that there “could be some relationship” between that and what happened with Mr. Rosen and the AP.
“To our knowledge, the Justice Department has never ‘compromised’ Ms. Atkisson’s computers, or otherwise sought any information from or concerning any telephone, computer or other media device she may own or use,” Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman told Politico Tuesday night.
The Justice Department released a statement Monday arguing that “leaks of classified information to the press can pose a serious risk of harm to our national security and it is important that we pursue these matters using appropriate law enforcement tools.”
White House press secretary Jay Carney, the former bureau’s chief for Time magazine, refused to provide any comment on the matter, saying it was an “ongoing criminal probe.”
But during Tuesday’s press briefing, he said President Obama does not believe that journalists reporting leaked classified information are committing crimes.
“If you’re asking me whether the president believes that journalists should be prosecuted for doing their jobs, the answer is no,” Mr. Carney said. [what Obama and his admin say and do are two different things. They are compulsive liars. (emphasis mine)]
Reporters on Monday had pressed Mr. Carney to say whether he agreed with the tract of labeling Mr. Rosen as a potential criminal co-conspirator in the case.
After the contentious exchange, Mr. Carney discussed the matter with the president.
“I can tell you in our conversation yesterday he reiterated just how important he believes it is to reporters that all of you and your colleagues are able to do your jobs in a free and open way and, as he has said, he believes there is an important balance to be found here and he thinks the questions about how that balance is being struck are entirely legitimate, and he welcomes the public discussion,” Mr. Carney said.
When asked whether, as a reporter, he ever had to decide whether to publish classified information, he said he hadn’t: “Not personally.”
“It’s not about me … as a reporter I think I am more intimately aware of these issues than some folks,” he said. “In terms of my past experience, it’s not particularly relevant.”
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The Washington Examiner
Justice Department: Even though we seized his emails, we’re not going to prosecute Fox News reporter
written by Charlie Spiering
May 31, 2013
The Justice Department in recent days has come under fire for defining Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible criminal “co-conspirator” who broke the law for publishing information leaked by one of his sources.
After citing his alleged criminal behavior in an affidavit, the Justice Department proceeded to seize e-mails from Rosen’s personal Gmail account and his work and cell phone records. The Justice Department also monitored Rosen’s activity at the State Department.
After meeting with journalists Thursday night, the Justice Department issued a statement indicating that in spite of the the affidavit, they did not expect to prosecute James Rosen for criminal behavior.
“At no time during the leak case involving Stephen Kim, before or after the FBI sought the search warrant, have prosecutors sought approval to bring criminal charges against the reporter,” the statement read.
According to journalists who attended the off-the-record meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday night, the department discussed revising the language so that reporters wouldn’t need to be defined as co-conspirators to execute search warrants.
“And nearly three years after completing our thorough investigation of the Kim matter, the Department does not anticipate bringing any additional charges,” the statement continued. “During the Attorney General’s tenure, no reporter has ever been prosecuted.”
But the statement does not explain why Justice Department officials failed to contact either Fox News or the Associated Press while making its case for a broad seizure of phone records and personal emails.
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Canada Free Press
written by Dan Calabrese
Wednesday May 29, 2013
The entire pretext by which the Obama Justice Department justified spying on James Rosen was flimsy enough. They trumped up the notion that they might charge him as a criminal co-conspirator to justify the warrant that allowed them to read his e-mails and access his phone records. This was always absurd, based on ridiculous notions about how Rosen approached his reporting work.
But it was worse than that. Not only did they want the warrant, they wanted it kept quiet because they figured they might want to just go ahead and monitor Rosen’s e-mails for an extended period of time. The New Yorker, of all media outlets, reports:
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