Fox News parent co. funneling money to Dems?
Contributions favored Obama 5-to-1 over Romney
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The record of News Corp’s campaign contributions, however, doesn’t paint the same picture.
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Similarly, News Corp contributions favored Barack Obama over challenger Mitt Romney by a better than 5-to-1 margin.
All by itself, News America Holdings, News Corp’s political action committee, was more “fair and balanced” in its contributions but still granted 52 percent of its more than $300,000 spent on federal elections to Democrats and 48 percent to Republicans.
The top three recipients of campaign cash from News Corp in 2012 were, in order, the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democrat presidential incumbent Obama.
Thus far in spending toward the upcoming 2014 mid-term election, News Corp is still favoring Democrats with a reported 62 percent of its total campaign donations.
Furthermore, News Corp’s preference for Democrat candidates isn’t actually new. Going back to 1990, News Corp contributions have favored Democrats in nine of 13 election cycles.
The numbers tend to swing even farther left during presidential years, as News Corp contributions have preferred Obama over Romney by a 5-to-1 margin in 2012, Obama over Republican John McCain by 3-to-1 in 2008 and the same margin in favoring Democrat Al Gore over Republican George W. Bush in 2000.
News Corp is listed by OpenSecrets.org as a “heavy hitter,” meaning it is one of the 140 biggest overall donors to federal elections since the 1990 election cycle.
By comparison, the Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC and ESPN and also a “heavy hitter,” favored Democrats over Republicans by a 3-to-1 margin in 2012 and Obama over Romney by more than 8-to-1. Disney has also favored Democratic candidates in every election since 1990.
Comcast, owner of NBC and MSNBC, is a significantly larger and more diversified company, and its total contributions dwarf both Disney and News Corp. Of the over $5 million its affiliated companies and individuals gave to campaigns in 2012, roughly $3 million went to Democrats and $2 million went to Republicans. Contributions favored Obama over Romney 3-to-1. Comcast companies and employees have contributed more to Democrats than Republicans in eight of the last 13 elections.
News Corp founder Murdoch, however, hasn’t followed his company’s patterns. Records show of the over $800,000 total he and his most recent wife, Wendi, have contributed cumulatively since 1990, 83 percent has landed in Republican hands. In 2012, the couple donated $73,500 to Republican candidates and only $5,000 to Democrats.
Other News Corp executives, though, have led the charge to the left. Peter Chernin, News Corp’s president and chief operating officer from 1996-2009, and his wife, Megan, have sent 87 percent of their contributions to Democrats since 1990.
News Corps’ film division, 20th Century Fox, has leaned most heavily on the scales, sending over $365,000 to Democrats in 2012, compared only $1,500 to Republicans.
Employees of news outlets themselves, like Fox News Channel, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, tend to make very few campaign contributions, often because of company policies forbidding it. Less than $10,000 was contributed in 2012 from employees of the three news outlets combined, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
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The Patriot Conservative News Tea Party Network Reports IRS Knew Tea Party Was Being Targeted In 2011: Report
New IRS scandal revives past allegations against agency
Published May 14, 2013
FoxNews.com
The latest scandal has revived past allegations of partisan behavior at the IRS, with some lawmakers as well as the alleged victims calling for those complaints to now get a second look. The unresolved cases include claims of media leaks on private donor information during last year’s presidential race and other instances of political profiling.
"This whole episode reinforces and confirms the American people’s worst fears about big government run amok,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News.
"The startling revelations give real credibility to numerous reports over the last year that the IRS 'inadvertently' released donor information from conservative groups -- and that information ended up in the hands of political opponents," Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who is pressing the Treasury Department and IRS for more details on those past cases, said in a statement.
The newest allegations of the IRS overstepping its authority only feed into claims that those within the powerful agency routinely disregard the law and use their authority to intimidate and target at will.
The latest startling claim came Tuesday from an unexpected source -- ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning progressive journalism group -- which said the same Cincinnati IRS branch accused of targeting conservative groups released nine confidential applications of conservative groups to them last year.
Critics had long questioned how ProPublica got that information. ProPublica put the speculation to rest on Tuesday. The media outlet said it had requested 67 applications for nonprofits in 2012. They were given 31. Of those, nine had not been approved and therefore should not have been made public.
ProPublica ultimately published six of them, despite late-breaking objections from the IRS -- the agency apparently told the organization that it should not have received the confidential applications.
Considering this and other cases, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney took some heat Tuesday after he told reporters that nobody in the Obama administration had targeted conservative groups in the past.
Many questioned the statement and pointed to a 2010 incident involving Austan Goolsbee, Obama’s former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Goolsbee told reporters on Aug. 27, 2010 that Koch Industries, a billion-dollar energy company run by the politically influential Koch brothers, paid no income taxes.
The tax records of Koch Industries -- a private company – would not have been public information and therefore should not have been known to Goolsbee. At the time, the Obama team backpedaled and said the information was made public in two places – which turned out to be untrue. Then the Obama administration said Goolsbee had misspoken and that he had guessed the company’s confidential tax information.
At the time, the IRS had promised to look into the Goolsbee gaffe but a report was never publicly released.
A source familiar with the situation suggested to FoxNews.com Tuesday that Goolsbee’s comments were a “calculated” attempt by the administration to insert Koch’s name into his discussion about companies that don’t pay taxes.
Accusations of improper IRS behavior surfaced again in 2012 when a prominent anti-gay marriage group accused the agency of leaking private tax files that listed then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney's group as a contributor. The National Organization for Marriage documents were later published by a group whose president was tied to the Obama re-election campaign.
NOM claimed that someone from the IRS fed the liberal Human Rights Campaign documents listing its 2008 contributors. On that list was a $10,000 donation from Romney’s political action committee. The Human Rights Campaign then published the documents online, saying it had uncovered one of the group’s “top secret donors,” and accused Romney of attacking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.
The donation came as NOM and other conservative groups were fighting for the Proposition 8 measure banning gay marriage in California.
Group President Brian Brown this week renewed his call for the IRS to reveal any employee who might have leaked the material.
"There is little question that one or more employees at the IRS stole our confidential tax return and leaked it to our political enemies, in violation of federal law," Brown said in a statement. "The only questions are who did it, and whether there was any knowledge or coordination between people in the White House, the Obama reelection campaign and the Human Rights Campaign."
Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation said they, too, were targets of the IRS years ago.
“We endured politically-motivated audits under both the Carter and the Clinton administrations,” Heritage senior media associate Kim McIntyre told Fox News. “Back then, Washington’s ‘enemy lists’ were restricted to well-established groups. But targeting fledging Tea Party groups is different.”
McIntyre questioned whether smaller groups targeted by the IRS can even afford to fight back and says that “expensive audits could very well strangle them in a cradle. Bringing the weight and resources of the federal government to bear against small organizations threatens not just punishment, but extinction.”
Some say the allegations against the IRS are not a surprise given the agency’s storied past of mean-spirited power plays that stretch back to President Franklin Roosevelt -- accused of using his political sway to get the independent agency to lean on his critics.
President Kennedy’s administration authorized the “Ideological Organizations Project” that went after conservative organizations, while President Johnson was accused of promising tax favors in exchange for votes.
Claims of shady moves made by IRS saw a sharp rise in the 1960s and 1970s. Some say the agency has not been able to shake off the bad rap.
The IRS now says that its latest program of flagging conservative groups for additional scrutiny was inappropriate, but not partisan. An inspector general report unveiled Tuesday urged the IRS to clean up its operation, and Attorney General Eric Holder also announced he had “ordered an investigation” into the IRS controversy and that his office was “examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations.”
The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.
But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog's report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with "Tea Party," `'Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says.
The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck. In a statement to the AP, Beck suggested that the revelations were hardly news to him and other conservatives.
"In February 2012, TheBlaze first reported what the IRS now admits to – that they unfairly targeted conservative groups including the 9/12 project," Beck said, citing his website and TV network. "It is nice to see everyone else playing catch-up and finally asking the same questions that TheBlaze started raising over a year ago."
Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately," the report says.
The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The AP obtained part of the draft report, which has been shared with congressional aides.
Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS' Rulings and Agreements office "held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue."
On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement," the report says.
In Shulman's responses, he did not acknowledge targeting of tea party groups. At a congressional hearing March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman said at the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing.
The portion of the draft report reviewed by the AP does not say whether Shulman or anyone else in the Obama administration outside the IRS was informed of the targeting. It is standard procedure for agency heads to consult with staff before responding to congressional inquiries, but it is unclear how much information Shulman sought.
The IRS has not said when Shulman found out that Tea Party groups were targeted.
Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now run by an acting commissioner, Steven Miller.
The IRS said in a statement Saturday that the agency believes the timeline in the IG's report is correct, and supports what officials said Friday.
"IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing," the statement said. "The timeline does not contradict the commissioner's testimony. While exempt organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail."
Lerner's position is three levels below the commissioner.
"The timeline supports what the IRS acknowledged on Friday that mistakes were made," the statement continued. "There were not partisan reasons behind this."
Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's oversight subcommittee, said the report "raises serious questions as to who at IRS, Treasury and in the administration knew about this, why this practice was allowed to continue for as long as it did, and how widespread it was."
"This timeline reveals at least two extremely unethical actions by the IRS. One, as early as 2010, they targeted groups for political purposes. Two, they willfully and knowingly lied to Congress for years despite being aware that Congress was investigating this practice," Boustany said.
"This is an outrageous abuse of power. Going after organizations for referencing the Bill of Rights or expressing the intent to make this country a better place is repugnant," Boustany added. "There is no excuse for this behavior."
Several congressional committees have promised investigations, including the Ways and Means Committee, which plans to hold a hearing.
"The admission by the agency that it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both shocking and disappointing," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. "We will hold the IRS accountable for its actions."
The group Tea Party Patriots said the revelation was proof that the IRS had lied to Congress and the public when Schulman said there had been no targeting of tea party groups.
"We must know how many more lies they have been telling and how high up the chain the cover-up goes," Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for the group Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement Saturday.
"It appears the IRS committed crimes and violated our ability to exercise our First Amendment right to free speech. A simple apology is not sufficient reparation for violating the constitutional rights of United States citizens. Therefore, Tea Party Patriots rejects the apology from the Internal Revenue Service," Martin said. "We are, however, encouraged to hear that Congress plans to investigate. Those responsible must be held accountable and resign or be terminated for their actions."
On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration expected the inspector general to conduct a thorough investigation, but he brushed aside calls for the White House itself to investigate.
Many conservative groups complained during the 2012 election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.
The forms, which the groups have made available, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.
In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors.
There has been a surge of politically active groups claiming tax-exempt status in recent elections – conservative and liberal. Among the highest profile are Republican Karl Rove's group Crossroads GPS and the liberal Moveon.org.
These groups claim tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which is for social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities, but their primary activity must be social welfare.
That determination is up to the IRS.
The number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.
Lerner said on Friday this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity.
As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.
"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner told the AP on Friday. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."
In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.
Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.
___
Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap
House Sets Wednesday Deadline for IRS Documents
Sunday, 12 May 2013 02:03 PM
The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight has demanded that the IRS provide by Wednesday all communications involving the words "tea party," "conservative" or "patriot."
The committee also is demanding the names and titles of all individuals who were involved in targeting conservative non-profit groups for extra scrutiny, CNS reported.
The tax-collecting agency admitted on Friday that conservative groups had been improperly targeted and made to comply with cumbersome requests for information outside normal IRS procedures.
But the agency blamed the actions on a few low-level employees in its Cincinnati offices.
On Sunday, Republicans blasted the agency for broadly singling out conservative groups, or any political policy-minded groups, for that matter.
"This is something we cannot let stand. It needs to have a full investigation," House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, said on "Fox News Sunday."
"I don't care if you're a conservative, a liberal a Democrat or a Republican, this should send a chill up your spine," Rogers added.
"This is truly outrageous and it contributes to the profound mistrust that the American people have in government," Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said on CNN's "State of the Union." "The president needs to make crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable in America." Collins said she also doubted the IRS's claim that the groups were targeted as part of an "inappropriate" organizing technique by a few bureaucrats in the agency's tax-exempt section, rather than for political reasons.
"I just don't buy that this was a couple of rogue IRS employees. After all, groups with "progressive" in their names were not targeted similarly," Collins said.
"If it had been just a small group of employees, then you would think that the high-level IRS supervisors would have rushed to make this public, fire the employees involved and apologized to the American people and informed Congress," she said.
Rep. Rogers said an outside investigation was needed to get to the root of the matter, referring to IRS statements last year that no groups had been targeted for additional scrutiny.
"I don't know where it stops or who's involved ... (The investigation) has to be external. It's clearly shown that they can't do it themselves. And I think Congress needs to have that oversight," Rogers said.
The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is to release a report on its investigation into the issue within a few days.
Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, has vowed to investigate, and the House Oversight and Government Reform committee he chairs has the power to issue subpoenas.
In an exclusive, the Associated Press revealed on Saturday that a federal watchdog's upcoming report will say that senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as far back as 2011.
Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, found out at a meeting on June 29, 2011 that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog's report.
At the meeting, she was told that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative radio and TV personality Glenn Beck.
The disclosure contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who repeatedly assured Congress that conservative groups were not targeted. He at the time described the communications between the IRS and conservative groups as the "normal back-and-forth that happens with the IRS."
Meanwhile, the committee has released a timeline of the interactions and a list of 10 questions it plans to ask the agency at an upcoming hearing.
That timeline, Fox reports, includes Rep. Charles Boustany, chairman of Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, sending a letter to Shulman on Oct. 6, 2011, for information “regarding the tax-exempt sector.” It ends on March 12, 2012 when the IRS wrote back “with no mention of knowledge of targeting conservative groups.”
Fox reports that some of the questions that are expected to be asked include: "What steps, if any, has the IRS taken to ensure that the targeting of individuals and organizations does not occur in the future?" and "When was the IRS commissioner made aware of these unlawful practices, what steps were taken, if any, to halt the harassment of conservative organizations? And "Who was disciplined regarding these practices, if anyone?"
Lerner instructed agents to change the agency's criteria for flagging groups "immediately," the report says.
On Friday, the IRS apologized for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if those groups were violating their tax-exempt status.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, WHY OBAMA RELEASED EMBARRASSING IRS BOMBSHELL
by BOB UNRUH
The Internal Revenue Service under the Obama administration – described by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., as the “most feared government agency” – admitted Friday it targeted conservative and tea-party groups during last year’s election because of their politics.
Bachmann, a former tax attorney, told WND in an interview the IRS admission means the credibility of the 2012 election is in doubt.
Americans, she said, should be wondering whether Obamacare, which is to be enforced by the IRS, will target conservative voices opposed to President Obama with delays or denials of medical care.
But why would an administration ever confess to such a flagrant misuse of politics and power?
Bachmann, who chairs the House Tea Party caucus, said it’s the Benghazi scandal.
“There’s no doubt this was not a coincidence that they dumped this story today, a Friday dump day,” Bachmann told WND. “This is when they put their negative stories out.”
But she said the looming storm cloud called Benghazi is the “soft underbelly” of the Obama administration and likely will keep Hillary Clinton from fulfilling her dream of occupying the Oval Office.
That would make it logical to release an IRS story that, while embarrassing, also could be cubbyholed as another “conservative” dispute with the White House.
She was referring to the ongoing hearings on the administration’s handling of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by al-Qaida-linked terrorists on a U.S. foreign service post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the ambassador.
House Republicans allege the U.S. government knew of a terrorist threat but ignored it. After the attack, critics charge, the administration blamed the deaths on reaction to an obscure anti-Muslim video, despite evidence from the beginning that it was a premeditated terrorist attack.
Locked in a tight presidential race, a deliberate assault on American assets and the murder of Americans by al-Qaida on a date as significant as 9/11 would have damaged Obama’s campaign claim that his administration had al-Qaida under control.
Bachmann said the IRS announcement of misbehavior was intended to provoke conservatives and draw their anger and attention.
“I was in that Benghazi hearing,” she told WND. “I think the Obama administration is desperate to spin Benghazi, and they can’t. I think they saved this story up for a day like today so that conservatives would focus on this admission.”
It won’t work, she insisted.
“Conservatives can handle two shocking stories at the same time,” she said. “Both are equally unconstitutional and call into question the very president.”
The Benghazi investigation has been getting worse for Obama, with witnesses testifying to a House panel Wednesday that military troops were prepared to come to Benghazi but were told to stand down. Today, the White House was grilled about the elimination of references to terrorism in the talking points officials used in the aftermath of the attack.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/why-obama-released-embarrassing-irs-bombshell/
With his knee-jerk criticism of those attending Glenn Beck's recent "Restoring Honor" rally, NAACP president Ben Jealous showed what his once-venerable group has become — a progressive front masquerading as a civil rights organization.
by Deneen Borelli (bio)
In an interview with Eyeblast.tv, Jealous — who was demonstrating with Al Sharpton at a location not far from Beck's event at the Lincoln Memorial — said, "I have a feeling if somebody stood up and read Dr. King's speech to that crowd, they would not get applause."
Jealous' remark insinuates that the predominately-white crowd would not cheer for Dr. King's message because he was black. It's typical of the NAACP's race-card assault on the Tea Party movement. But segments of the speech were played, and it was applauded. Too bad no one from the NAACP was there to catch it. Therein lies the problem.
The NAACP has increasingly used false claims of racism in a desperate attempt to maintain relevance.
While the NAACP seemingly tries to turn back the clock on the perception of civil rights progress, Americans who believe in the content of one's character are moving forward.
Unfortunately, for the NAACP, facts are stubborn.
Take for example, the speech at the Beck rally by MLK's niece, Dr. Alveda King. She said that, if her uncle was at the rally, he "would encourage us to set aside the divisive lies that cause us to think that we are members of separate races." She added: "We are one human family." It was a comment that received loud applause and cheers.
The Rev. C.L. Jackson of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Texas was the recipient of the "Restoring Honor" event's Merit Award for Faith, one of three merit awards presented for Faith, Hope and Charity. He also received an enthusiastic crowd response.
Being a black conservative in the Beck crowd, I received an enthusiastic and warm reception as well. I was given words of encouragement and appreciation for being there, and some who recognized me from my television interviews asked to pose for photos with me. Personally, it was especially gratifying for me to feel such a positive response and I took great pride in talking with my fellow patriots.
Feedback isn't always so encouraging among the black political establishment and its followers.
Like many black conservatives, I am often called a "token," "traitor" and "sell out" simply because of my views for limited government and personal responsibility.
Ironically, the NAACP's support of civil rights does not seem to apply to black conservatives.
During a panel discussion on Fox News Channel's "Geraldo At Large" about race and politics with NAACP senior vice president Hilary Shelton, I asked Shelton if the organization would issue a statement condemning those who expose me to politically-motivated racial abuse. Shelton's response was, "Why, yes, ma'am… Just give us some details… The very broad answer is… yes, we repudiate anybody calling you a bad name in the political arena."
As requested, a letter was delivered to Shelton's office on July 28, chronicling some of the racist statements made against me and other Project 21 members. To date, there has not been a response from Shelton or anyone else at the NAACP.
That I got an overwhelmingly positive response from tea party supporters and the silent treatment from the NAACP is telling. The civil rights establishment appears to have jettisoned equal rights for political gain.
It's too bad Jealous missed Beck's "Restoring Honor" event. Had he attended, Jealous would not have been able to ignore the warm reception that blacks received on stage and the overarching message that restoring honor in America starts with God.
Beck's message to Americans is that it's the responsibility of every individual to make our country a better place, and that God put us here for a special purpose.
The principles exhibited by our Founding Fathers and the honor and mighty courage of our military personnel provide a course toward liberty. Americans should search within themselves to determine what their talents are and how they can be applied toward restoring honor and integrity for the sake of our country.
Putting aside politics in favor of our founding principles might jeopardize the progressive agenda Jealous supports.
Our rights come from God — not man. Progressives, however, want to replace God with government.
Judging by the hundreds of thousands of Americans at the Lincoln Memorial in the sweltering August heat, this simply will not happen — not on our watch.
# # #Deneen Borelli is a fellow for the Project 21 black leadership network and a Fox News Channel contributor. This column first appeared at FoxNews.com. Comments may be sent to DBorelli@nationalcenter.org.
Published by The National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.
Tuesday, 14 May 2013 14:48
Seizure of AP Phone Records Said to "Shock the American Conscience"
Written by Jack Kenny
News that the U.S. Department of Justice secretly obtained two
months of telephone records of reporters and editors working for the
Associated Press has triggered a storm of protest from news
organizations and civil libertarians and placed another potential
scandal at the door of a White House already on the defensive over
allegations of a cover-up in the Benghazi investigation and the IRS
targeting conservative groups for added scrutiny and tax audits.
In what its top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" by the government into news gathering activities, the AP reported Monday that records were seized of calls from both office and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, and from general AP office numbers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Connecticut, in addition to the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. Records for more than 20 different phone lines assigned to the AP and its journalists were seized for the months of April and May, 2012, according to AP lawyers. More than 100 journalists work in the offices where the phone lines were targeted, the news agency said.
Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington, sent notice of the action in a letter the AP received on Friday. The records were obtained through Justice Department subpoenas, though it is not known whether a judge or grand jury authorized the subpoenas, the AP said.
William Miller, a spokesman for Machen, told the New York Times that in general the U.S. attorney follows "all applicable laws, federal regulations and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations." He would not address questions about the seizure of the AP records, however. "We do not comment on ongoing criminal investigations," Miller said in an e-mail to the Times.
Machen's letter did not say why the records were taken, but government officials have previously said in public that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information for a May 7, 2012, AP story about what was believed to be a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that supposedly stopped an al-Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States. Five reporters and an editor who worked on that story were among those whose phone records wee seized, the AP said.
The alleged bomber was later revealed to be a CIA spy attempting to penetrate the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
John Brennan, then the president's counterterrorism advisor and currently head of the CIA, said in written testimony to the Senate that an "irresponsible and damaging leak of classified information was made ... when someone informed The Associated Press that the U.S. government had intercepted an IED (improvised explosive device) that was supposed to be used in an attack and that the U.S. government currently had that IED in its possession and was analyzing it."
The Associated Press said Monday it had delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials, and published it only after officials said publication would no longer jeopardize national security. The story went out while the Obama administration continued to request that it be withheld until the administration could make an official announcement, the AP said.
In a strongly worded letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters," Pruitt wrote. "These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know."
Holder announced last June the Justice Department was conducting two investigations of news leaks, one into revelations about the alleged bombing plot in Yemen, and the other into reports of U.S. cyber warfare against Iran's nuclear program.
The New York Times said Monday the investigation into the cyberwar leaks is believed to be focused on Times reporter David Sanger, who has written news stories and a book about a joint American-Israeli effort to sabotage Iranian nuclear centrifuges with the so-called Stuxnet virus. The Justice Department would not respond to the Times' query as to whether it had taken steps in the Times investigation similar to the seizure of the AP phone records. A lawyer for the newspapers said he had had no contact of any sort from the government.
Holder's announcement last June came at a time when some members of Congress were calling for a crackdown on leaks, following news stories about the bomb plot, the cyberwar efforts, the president's "kill list" for targeting suspected terrorists with drone strikes, and revelations about the raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Republicans charged the Obama administration with leaking the information in an election year to enhance the president's reputation for prosecuting the war on terror, a charge denied at the White House. Thirty-one Republican senators signed a letter to Holder, calling on the attorney general to immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate national security leaks from the executive branch. The GOP lawmakers named National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon as a likely source of leaks for Sanger's book, Confront and Conceal.
Arnie Robbins, executive director of the American Society of News Editors, called the seizure of AP phone records "a disturbing affront to a free press. It's also troubling because it is consistent with perhaps the most aggressive administration ever against reporters doing their jobs — providing information that citizens need to know about our government." The Obama administration has prosecuted six criminal cases against people accused of revealing classified information, more than all previous administrations combined, the AP said. According to the British publication The Guardian, those prosecuted have included a former CIA officer for revealing details to journalists about waterboarding, and a former member of the National Security Agency for disclosing that the agency was about to spend millions of dollars on a software program that he said was more expensive than a similar program developed in-house.
The president's press secretary, Jay Carney, said the White House was not behind the seizure of the AP phone records.
"Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the A.P.," he said, adding, "We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations."
The Newspaper Association of America issued a statement saying the Justice Department actions "shock the American conscience and violate the critical freedom of the press protected by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights."
"The attorney general must explain the Justice Department's actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again," said Laura Murphy, the director of American Civil Liberty Union's Washington legislative office.
The seizure was roundly criticized on Capitol Hill as well. "The First Amendment is first for a reason," said House Speaker John Boehner. "If the Obama Administration is going after reporters' phone records, they better have a damned good explanation."
"The Fourth Amendment is not just a protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, it is a fundamental protection for the First Amendment and all other Constitutional rights," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). "It sets a high bar — a warrant — for the government to take actions that could chill exercise of any of those rights. We must guard it with all the vigor that we guard other constitutional protections."
In what its top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" by the government into news gathering activities, the AP reported Monday that records were seized of calls from both office and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, and from general AP office numbers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Connecticut, in addition to the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. Records for more than 20 different phone lines assigned to the AP and its journalists were seized for the months of April and May, 2012, according to AP lawyers. More than 100 journalists work in the offices where the phone lines were targeted, the news agency said.
Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington, sent notice of the action in a letter the AP received on Friday. The records were obtained through Justice Department subpoenas, though it is not known whether a judge or grand jury authorized the subpoenas, the AP said.
William Miller, a spokesman for Machen, told the New York Times that in general the U.S. attorney follows "all applicable laws, federal regulations and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations." He would not address questions about the seizure of the AP records, however. "We do not comment on ongoing criminal investigations," Miller said in an e-mail to the Times.
Machen's letter did not say why the records were taken, but government officials have previously said in public that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information for a May 7, 2012, AP story about what was believed to be a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that supposedly stopped an al-Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States. Five reporters and an editor who worked on that story were among those whose phone records wee seized, the AP said.
The alleged bomber was later revealed to be a CIA spy attempting to penetrate the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
John Brennan, then the president's counterterrorism advisor and currently head of the CIA, said in written testimony to the Senate that an "irresponsible and damaging leak of classified information was made ... when someone informed The Associated Press that the U.S. government had intercepted an IED (improvised explosive device) that was supposed to be used in an attack and that the U.S. government currently had that IED in its possession and was analyzing it."
The Associated Press said Monday it had delayed reporting the story at the request of government officials, and published it only after officials said publication would no longer jeopardize national security. The story went out while the Obama administration continued to request that it be withheld until the administration could make an official announcement, the AP said.
In a strongly worded letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters," Pruitt wrote. "These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know."
Holder announced last June the Justice Department was conducting two investigations of news leaks, one into revelations about the alleged bombing plot in Yemen, and the other into reports of U.S. cyber warfare against Iran's nuclear program.
The New York Times said Monday the investigation into the cyberwar leaks is believed to be focused on Times reporter David Sanger, who has written news stories and a book about a joint American-Israeli effort to sabotage Iranian nuclear centrifuges with the so-called Stuxnet virus. The Justice Department would not respond to the Times' query as to whether it had taken steps in the Times investigation similar to the seizure of the AP phone records. A lawyer for the newspapers said he had had no contact of any sort from the government.
Holder's announcement last June came at a time when some members of Congress were calling for a crackdown on leaks, following news stories about the bomb plot, the cyberwar efforts, the president's "kill list" for targeting suspected terrorists with drone strikes, and revelations about the raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Republicans charged the Obama administration with leaking the information in an election year to enhance the president's reputation for prosecuting the war on terror, a charge denied at the White House. Thirty-one Republican senators signed a letter to Holder, calling on the attorney general to immediately appoint a special counsel to investigate national security leaks from the executive branch. The GOP lawmakers named National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon as a likely source of leaks for Sanger's book, Confront and Conceal.
Arnie Robbins, executive director of the American Society of News Editors, called the seizure of AP phone records "a disturbing affront to a free press. It's also troubling because it is consistent with perhaps the most aggressive administration ever against reporters doing their jobs — providing information that citizens need to know about our government." The Obama administration has prosecuted six criminal cases against people accused of revealing classified information, more than all previous administrations combined, the AP said. According to the British publication The Guardian, those prosecuted have included a former CIA officer for revealing details to journalists about waterboarding, and a former member of the National Security Agency for disclosing that the agency was about to spend millions of dollars on a software program that he said was more expensive than a similar program developed in-house.
The president's press secretary, Jay Carney, said the White House was not behind the seizure of the AP phone records.
"Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the A.P.," he said, adding, "We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations."
The Newspaper Association of America issued a statement saying the Justice Department actions "shock the American conscience and violate the critical freedom of the press protected by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights."
"The attorney general must explain the Justice Department's actions to the public so that we can make sure this kind of press intimidation does not happen again," said Laura Murphy, the director of American Civil Liberty Union's Washington legislative office.
The seizure was roundly criticized on Capitol Hill as well. "The First Amendment is first for a reason," said House Speaker John Boehner. "If the Obama Administration is going after reporters' phone records, they better have a damned good explanation."
"The Fourth Amendment is not just a protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, it is a fundamental protection for the First Amendment and all other Constitutional rights," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). "It sets a high bar — a warrant — for the government to take actions that could chill exercise of any of those rights. We must guard it with all the vigor that we guard other constitutional protections."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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