Earlier tonight, Fox News’ Brett Baier reported that the seizure of phone records relating to reporter James Rosen went much farther than was initially believed. His parents’ phone records were evidently seized in the Department of Justice’s fishing expedition.
During a panel discussion on the Department of Justice seizing the phone records of Fox News’ James Rosen, Bret Baier revealed that the seizure included the phone records of Rosen’s parents. The entire panel agreed the scandal was an outrage, with Kirsten Powers pointing out that there have been a number of high-profile leaks from the Obama administration, but the only ones they seem interested in going after are the ones that make them look bad. Charles Krauthammer found it amazing that the government would make such a “huge assault on the first amendment” in trying to go after Rosen for doing his job.
Assaulting the First Amendment is well within the character of the Obama administration. It similarly attacked the free press in the AP phone records seizure, and a film maker still sits in one of the most obscure prisons in the country after the Obama government blamed the Benghazi terrorist attack on the movie that he made. The president also directly assault freedom of religion and free speech in his remarks to the UN Sept. 26, 2012, in which he said that “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” Who is he to dictate what “slander” is, whose prophet gets official protection, or to whom the future will belong? Through ObamaCare, Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services has made providing abortifacient drugs mandatory, in violation of millions of Americans’ right of religious conscience.
The Rosen case is merely a fresh outrage against the First Amendment piled atop the others, and it’s unlikely to be the last as long as this president remains in office.
And it gets even worse. According to Ryan Lizza, the DOJ sweep hit at least five phone lines at Fox and scores elsewhere.
The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed on October 13, 2011, in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, who is prosecuting the case, has seized records associated with two phone numbers at the White House, at least five numbers associated with Fox News, and one that has the same area code and exchange as Rosen’s personal-cell-phone number (the last four numbers are redacted).
In all, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has seized records associated with over thirty different phone numbers.
Who’s next?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member