GOP Report: Holder Deliberately Misled Congress, Should be Fired (+video)
Photo Credit: Fox NewsRepublican report concludes Holder misled Congress on reporter targeting
By Fox News. House Republicans, in a lengthy report on the Justice Department’s leak investigations, formally accused Attorney General Eric Holder of misleading Congress with “deceptive” testimony that he knew nothing of the “potential prosecution” of the press.
The 70-page report was released late Wednesday by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. To coincide with the release, lawmakers also wrote a letter to President Obama calling for a “change in leadership” at the Justice Department.
“The deceptive and misleading testimony of Attorney General Holder is unfortunately just the most recent example in a long list of scandals that have plagued the department,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement.
The report delved into the department’s aggressive investigations over various security leaks, but focused in large part on the FBI affidavit seeking a search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s emails in connection with one such probe. The DOJ sought access to the documents by arguing Rosen was a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case, citing the Espionage Act. Read more from this story HERE.
______________________________________________________________
GOP Letter to Obama Seeking “Change in Leadership at the Justice Department”
July 31,2013
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
As members of the House Judiciary Committee, we write to express to you our grave concerns with Attorney General Eric Holder’s lack of leadership of the Justice Department. This lack of leadership is borne out by his recent testimony before the Committee and by the Justice Department’s handling of criminal investigations involving members of the media. Attached for your review is a report prepared by the Committee entitled “Journalists or Criminals? Attorney General Eric Holder’s Testimony before the Committee and the Justice Department’s National Security Leak Investigative Techniques.”
The report finds that Mr. Holder provided deceptive and misleading testimony to the Committee. On May 15,2013, Mr. Holder testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee that the “potential prosecution” of a member of the media for a violation of the Espionage Act was something that he had never “been involved” in or “heard of.” Subsequently, it was revealed that he personally approved a search warrant for Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen’s emails, alleging to a federal judge that Mr. Rosen was a co-conspirator in an Espionage Act investigation.
We believe that Mr. Holder’s simple and direct statement had the intended effect – to leave the members of the Committee with the impression that not only had the potential prosecution of a reporter never been contemplated during Mr. Holder’s tenure, but that nothing comparable to the Rosen search warrant had ever been executed by your administration. Mr. Holder was not conversing with fellow prosecutors at the Justice Department; he was speaking to members of Congress and the American people in a venue that requires the utmost candor and clarity.
In addition, the Committee report finds that Mr. Holder and the Justice Department inappropriately interpreted the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (PP A) to obtain a search warrant for Mr. Rosen’s emails in contravention to congressional intent. Likewise, Mr. Holder’sproposal to am end the PPA is unnecessary, offered only as a cover for his testimony and the Department’s investigation of journalists.
Mr. Holder’s testimony and the Justice Department’s targeting of the media is but the latest in a series of controversial and questionable investigations undertaken during your tenure as President that cry out for a change in leadership at the Justice Department.
Sincerely,
Republican Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary
