Following reports that the federal government secretly obtained phone records from the Associated Press last year, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that he couldn’t recall how many times Department of Justice investigators seized such records from news organizations in the past.
“I’m not sure how many of those cases … I have actually signed off on,” Holder told NPR in an interview. “I take them very seriously. I know that I have refused to sign a few [and] pushed a few back for modifications.”
The attorney general is personally required to sign off on subpoenas aimed at obtaining media records. Holder said Tuesday that he recused himself from the decision to subpoena phone records of Associated Press journalists because he was previously interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in connection to an alleged leak of classified information.
“To avoid any potential appearance of a conflict of interest, the Attorney General recused himself from this matter,” the DOJ said in a statement Tuesday. “Since that time, this investigation has been conducted by the FBI under the direction of the U.S. Attorney and the supervision of the Deputy Attorney General, who has served as the Acting Attorney General overseeing this investigation. The decision to seek media toll records in this investigation was made by the Deputy Attorney General consistent with Department regulations and policies.”
A top AP executive called the seizure a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.
Holder is scheduled to testify at a DOJ oversight hearing on the Hill on Wednesday, where he is expected to face bipartisan scrutiny as to why his department seized the phone records of three AP bureaus.
