The U.S. Justice Department has secretly obtained two months of AP reporters' phone records, and the news organization is speculating that it's tied to an investigation into how the AP found out about an al-Qaida bomb plot in Yemen.
The plot involved smuggling a bomb concealed in underwear onto a plane bound for the U.S. The AP first reported on plans for the attack, but it was later revealed that the plans involved a double agent working for a British intelligence service and the CIA.
Prosecutors seized records for incoming and outgoing calls for both work and personal numbers for reporters and general AP offices in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn. The Justice Department informed the AP of the seizure on Friday.
Although the letter did not give a reason, the AP cites the FBI's investigation into the Yemen leaks.
The AP calls this move "an unprecedented intrusion into newsgathering."
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, demanding the government return the phone records and destroy all copies.
He said "there can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection" of the records and that the records "potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period."
This news comes at a time when the White House is being criticized for the administration's response to the Benghazi attacks and the IRS admission that it targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny.
The AP reports that "the Obama administration has ... brought six cases against people suspected of leaking classified information, more than under all previous presidents combined."
Such a broad government seizure of phone records could hurt AP reporters' relationships with confidential sources who provide information off the record.
This isn't the first time the government has seized reporters' phone records without much explanation. The New York Times published a story in 2008 about the FBI admitting to improperly obtaining phone records of New York Times and Washington Post reporters in Indonesia in 2004.
The FBI didn't say what was being investigated or why the phone records were relevant, but the NYT said it was apparently related to a terrorism investigation.
In that case, the FBI apparently ignored the requirement that it obtain permission from the deputy attorney general to obtain the records. As a result, the records were wiped from the FBI's databases.
It's not clear in the AP case whether such permission was obtained. The AP says the letter of notification it received came from Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.
The Justice Department sent Business Insiderthis statement:
We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations. Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means before even considering a subpoena for the phone records of a member of the media. We must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation. Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws.
Here's the full letter from the AP to the DOJ:
Letter to Eric Holder by Adam Taylor
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