The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has provided some of the most comprehensive reporting on the Justice Department’s investigation into Fox News reporter James Rosen, uncovering a list of 30 phone numbers that the department was tracking, including Rosen’s personal cell phone and one number belonging to Rosen’s parents. Lizza also reported that the Justice Department lobbied Google to keep its investigation of Rosen’s personal emails secret so that it could monitor the Gmail account for “a lengthy period of time.”
Having studied the original documents in the case, Lizza isn’t impressed by the analysis provided by Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum, who found some hope for Obama administration fans in the New York Times’ reporting on the case.
The New York Times Provides a Few New Tidbits on the Rosen Affair http://t.co/Vm5WAN5H0g
— Kevin Drum (@kdrum) May 25, 2013
Writes Drum:
In other words, [the Department of Justice] had to accuse Rosen of a crime in order to get the warrant approved. It was all pro forma, and doesn’t suggest anything one way or the other about whether they ever intended to actually charge Rosen with anything.
No biggie, see. The government was actually after Stephen Jin-Woo Kim and never intended to charge Rosen with a crime. The Justice Department just needed to accuse him of committing a crime so it could secretly monitor his email account and his movements.
This is dumbest & most frightening take I've read on Rosen matter & I fear it's hardening into the liberal position: http://t.co/vVL7D9hCxe
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 25, 2013
Kevin Drum thinks feds "HAD to accuse Rosen of a crime in order to get the warrant approved. It was all pro forma." Read that a few times.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 25, 2013
So going to a judge & falsely accusing someone of a crime in order to search their email is now "pro forma."
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 25, 2013
@RyanLizza So Drum is OK with a DOJ that *literally* trumps up charges for the purpose of circumventing the 4th Amendment? Alrighty, then.
— George Wallace (@foolintheforest) May 25, 2013
@RyanLizza In other words, they had to make a threat they didn't mean in order to get around the law. In the real world we call that lying.
— (((Charles F.))) (@ChasFlemming) May 25, 2013
Mother Jones is eating up the administration's spin on the Rosen case and regurgitating the crazy in pure form. http://t.co/MjGIqMCkQQ
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) May 25, 2013
So the liberal line is that govt falsely accused Rosen of crimes as a bureaucratic formality… and that makes it ok? http://t.co/fucx8PNhma
— Nevin (@TheNevin) May 25, 2013
It’s worth repeating that Attorney General Eric Holder himself vetted and signed the search warrant accusing Rosen of crimes it never intended to prosecute — strictly a formality. Nothing to see here; wouldn’t you rather watch that hidden camera video of Mitt Romney again?
