HOLDER’S ODD DEFENSE
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324563004578521320645171836.html
Justice now says its affidavit against a Fox News reporter wasn’t true.
As they try to save Attorney General Eric Holder’s job, not to mention his reputation, Obama Administration officials are employing some strange logic to defend the Justice Department’s investigation of journalists. It’ll be interesting to see if our liberal friends in the media buy it.
In its 2010 affidavit seeking a warrant to search the email of Fox News reporter James Rosen, Justice said there was “probable cause” to believe Mr. Rosen “has committed or is committing a violation” of the Espionage Act “as an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator.” That sounds like a serious criminal charge, and Mr. Holder personally approved the warrant request.
Yet now, amid a media uproar, Mr. Holder’s spinners are saying Justice never intended to prosecute Mr. Rosen. But if that’s true, then the Department’s warrant affidavit contained false claims about Mr. Rosen. Prosecutorial dishonesty is more common than it should be, but Justice officials don’t usually cop to it as a way of defending an Attorney General. Should judges assume that the “probable cause” and “co-conspirator” claims in Justice’s next warrant request are also a ruse?
The other odd assertion is that President Obama and Mr. Holder now suddenly want to revise the Justice Department’s guidelines on dealing with journalists. But the current guidelines already require prosecutors to investigate journalists only as a last resort, inform the media organization of the request to see if a compromise can be worked out, and then narrowly tailor any request in order to limit damage to the First Amendment. (See the excerpt nearby.)
So we are now supposed to believe that the same man who ignored these current rules in pursuing Mr. Rosen is going to write new rules that he and his minions will suddenly follow. Aren’t Attorneys General supposed to obey the law from the start?
A version of this article appeared June 3, 2013, on page A16 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Holder’s Odd Defense.
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