Based upon this story being mentioned in dozens of posts within this community, it’s safe to say that you probably recall the dust-up over the past couple of weeks regarding the DoJ’s surveillance of Fox News national security reporter James Rosen, right?
To refresh your memory, here’s a link to Kossack Jesselyn Radack’s follow-up coverage on the story. As you’re about to learn, once again, Ms. Radack was spot on — despite a cacaphony of very serious Kossacks not-so-nicely claiming otherwise, and insisting that our government lock the door and throw away the key due to Rosen’s simply treasonous behavior.
(You really should give Ms. Radack’s post, from this past Wednesday morning, a read.)
The nerve of some journalists actually attempting to obtain a scoop, many here exclaimed (perhaps in not as many words—no links provided)! Other Kossacks insisted that this latest DoJ effort made our government’s surveillance of AP phone records in Hartford, NY and D.C., first reported just two weeks earlier, look mild in comparison.
While it remains to be officially viewed as such by the DoJ, apparently, the entire matter with Fox News Reporter James Rosen was just a mistake, or so we’re now to believe, based upon this “breaking news” and clarification from the DoJ via Reuters over the past hour. (FYI: This is not snark.)
U.S. prosecutors never sought to charge reporter - Justice Dept
Reuters
June 3 | Mon Jun 3, 2013 3:53pm EDT
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Prosecutors who investigated a leak of secret U.S. information about North Korea never sought to file criminal charges against a Fox News reporter who acquired and reported the information, the Justice Department said on Monday.
Peter Kadzik, a deputy assistant attorney general, explained prosecutors' reasoning in a letter† to Republican lawmakers who last week said they were concerned about the FBI describing the reporter, James Rosen, as a co-conspirator in the case…
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UPDATE (starts here):
†=Here's the LINK to the Justice Department's letter (courtesy of Politico).
And, here's more from Politico's Josh Gerstein, all within the past hour...
Justice Department letter defends Eric Holder testimony
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Politico.com
6/3/13 4:48 PM EDT
The Justice Department has issued a new defense of Attorney General Eric Holder's Congressional testimony last month on investigations of journalists, sending a letter to two House leaders who complained that Holder appeared to have misled lawmakers at a May 15 hearing.
The letter from Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik doesn't add much to the sum total of knowledge about why prosecutors named Fox News reporter James Rosen as a co-conspirator in order to get a search warrant for his email in a leak investigation. It also reflects statements DOJ made last week arguing that labeling Rosen that way was not at odds with Holder's statement to the House Judiciary Committee that he'd never even "heard of" the possibility of prosecuting a journalist...
UPDATE ends here.
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In the words of Gilda Radner (portraying her Saturday Night Live character Emily Litella)…
Attorney General Eric Holder’s “Emily Litella Moment”
It will certainly be interesting to see how this story plays out from this point, won’t it? “Forward!”
Seriously folks, does it get any more pathetic than this? Why, yes! Yes it does!