Attorney General Eric Holder personally signed off on the warrant, allowing the Justice Department to search Fox News reporter James Rosen's personal email, NBC News reported on Thursday. The warrant Holder approved named Rosen as a "co-conspirator" in a leak investigation, warning that the Justice Department was potentially criminalizing journalists from doing their job, which is news gathering.
The warrant also approved the tracking of Rosen's movements in and out of the State Department, as well as his communications with his source Stephen Kim.
The Justice Department suggested he was a criminal "co-conspirator" in the leak case, under one of the most serious wartime laws in America, the Espionage Act. That act prohibited any attempt to interfere with military operations to support U.S. enemies during wartime, a charge that journalists lately are saying is unjust.
The Justice Department later said that it did not intend to press charges against Rosen. Two weeks ago, the attorney general recused himself from the investigation in the Associated Press, which seized hours of phone conversations from news reporters.
The news about Holder came hours after President Obama said that reporters should not be incriminated, just for doing their jobs.
"As Commander-in Chief, I believe we must keep information secret that protects our operations and our people in the field," the president said in his national security speech on Thursday. "To do so, we must enforce consequences for those who break the law and breach their commitment to protect classified information. But a free press is also essential for our democracy. Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs," but that the "focus must be on those who break the law."
Fox News Chief Roger Ailes condemned the justice department's actions of targeting reporters saying, ""We reject the government's efforts to criminalize the pursuit of investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to a Federal judge as a "co-conspirator" in a crime," Ailes wrote. "I know how concerned you are because so many of you have asked me: why should the government make me afraid to use a work phone or email account to gather news or even call a friend or family member? Well, they shouldn't have done it."
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