As details about the Department of Justice secretly monitoring phones lines of Associated Press reporters and the IRS inappropriately targeting tea party groups continue to emerge, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to reassure reporters Tuesday afternoon that President Obama is committed to protecting the First Amendment while refusing to comment about details of both cases.
"I cannot comment on the specifics of that [AP phone tapping]," Carney said. "He [Obama] cannot appropriately comment on the specifics of an ongoing criminal investigation."
Throughout his remarks, Carney stressed the importance of First Amendment and national security balance. It should be noted the Obama administration has prosecuted twice as many 'leakers' than all other administrations combined. Carney repeatedly referred questions to the Department of Justice for information about the phone tapping.
"It would be wholly inappropriate for President to involve himself in a criminal investigation," Carney said in response to a question about whether President Obama has called Attorney General Eric Holder about the AP scandal. "The President is committed to the press' ability to pursue information and protecting the First Amendment.....he is also mindful of secret and classified information needing to stay secret and classified for national security reasons "
Carney also said the only information the White House receives about ongoing investigations within the Department of Justice, including the AP phone tapping, "comes only from press reports."
On the IRS inappropriately targeting conservative and tea party groups, Carney had little comment and repeatedly referred to a coming inspector general report on the matter. Carney also said he's confident nobody in the Obama administration or on the Obama campaign team was involved in any of these scandals, yet went out of his way to state the White House still doesn't have 'all of the facts.' Carney refused to say whether the President believes IRS officials should be fired over inappropriate targeting.
"We cannot and should not prejudge the outcome of a situation before we know what the facts are," Carney said. "We don't want to appropriate consequences [before we know all of the facts]."
Carney continued to say "if" the IRS in fact targeting conservative groups, it would be inappropriate. IRS official Lois Lerner admitted last week that inappropriate targeting in fact took place.
When asked about the recent comparisons of President Obama to Richard Nixon, Carney said, "People who make those comparisons need to check their history."
Eric Holder on Phone Tapping: I Don't Have Knowledge of the Facts
Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that he recused himself months, maybe years ago, from the Associated Press [AP] phone line investigation. It was revealed yesterday that the Department of Justice had tapped 20 work and personal phone lines of AP reporters and editors due to a suspected national security leak.
"I recused myself from this matter...it was early on," Holder said, unable to give an exact date.
By law, Holder is responsible for signing off on subpoenas that would allow such an intrusive invasion of privacy and on free speech. However, because he recused himself from the case, his Deputy Attorney General James Cole signed off on the case and the subpoenas. As a reminder, Cole was also embroiled in the Fast and Furious scandal with Holder.
"I don't know what the circumstances were here....I frankly don't have the knowledge of those facts," Holder said when asked about the AP phone tapping, adding that he believes DOJ officials followed all proper subpoena procedures. "This administration has put a real value on the rule of law."
The law requires Justice Department probes into reporter communications be very limited and precise. In the AP case, 20 phone lines, both personal and private, were monitored.
"I would refer you to the Deputy Attorney General," Holder said when asked if the scope of the probe was too big.
When asked about the IRS targeting conservative groups, Holder said he has opened a criminal investigation into the case to see if any laws were broken.
BREAKING: Reince Priebus Calls on Eric Holder to Resign Over AP Secret Monitoring
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to resign in light of the Department of Justice secretly monitoring Associated Press reporters' and editors' phone conversations. Priebus is calling the move by the DOJ a direct violation of the First Amendment.
“Freedom of the press is an essential right in a free society. The First Amendment doesn’t request the federal government to respect it; it demands it. Attorney General Eric Holder, in permitting the Justice Department to issue secret subpoenas to spy on Associated Press reporters, has trampled on the First Amendment and failed in his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution," Priebus said in a statement. "Because Attorney General Holder has so egregiously violated the public trust, the president should ask for his immediate resignation. If President Obama does not, the message will be unmistakable: The President of the United States believes his administration is above the Constitution and does not respect the role of a free press.”
Attorney General Eric Holder will testify tomorrow in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
EDITORS NOTE: A previous version of this post mentioned the Second Amendment, it should have been the First Amendment.
The Bogus Obama Administration "Low-Level" Employees Argument
Throughout Barack Obama's tenure as President of the United States and throughout every major scandal during that time period, nobody important has known anything important about anything...important. Every time a new scandal breaks, the White House comment is "we found out about this through news reports," "we need to wait for all the facts," and of course, "this was just a few low-level employees in X-state or X-city, nobody in Washington was involved."
Operation Fast and Furious
After it was discovered in early 2011 the Department of Justice [DOJ] had knowingly and willingly trafficked 2500 semi-automatic Ak-47 style rifles, or what President Obama would call "military grade assault rifles," to Mexican drug cartels, DOJ officials in Washington D.C. immediately blamed a "few low-level, rogue ATF agents working in Phoenix." It turned out, not only did senior DOJ officials know about Fast and Furious from the beginning, which started in September 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder received regular memos about the operation.
Benghazi
In the aftermath of the 9/11 Benghazi terror attack, the entire Obama administration, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Obama, Press Secretary Jay Carney and UN Ambassador Susan Rice, all blamed a rogue and irrelevant YouTube video for the violence. After investigation by the House Oversight Committee, a handful of investigative press reports and whistleblower testimony from acting Libyan Ambassador Greg Hicks last week, we now know Clinton knew the 9/11 attack was in fact a terrorist attack on the day it happened.
"At 2 a.m. Secretary of State Clinton called me along with her senior staff were all on the phone and she asked me what was going on and I briefed her on developments. Most of the conversation was about the search for Ambassador Stevens. It was also about what we were going to do with our personnel in Benghazi and I told her that we would need to evacuate," Hicks said. "The only report that our mission made through every channel was that there had been an attack."
Now that the White House and Clinton have been caught in their lie about a YouTube video, they're blaming the "intelligence community" for bad information.
In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed not to know anything about requests for more security at the consulate in Benghazi. Those requests, of course, were handled by the people below her.
It turns out, Clinton did in fact receive at least one cable requesting more security.
IRS Targeting Tea Party Groups
As the IRS scandal continues to unfold, so does the story of IRS officials. Initially when this story broke, senior IRS officials denied Washington D.C. had anything to do with the specific and inappropriate targeting of tea party and conservative groups. We were told this was the work a few "low-level" IRS agents working in Cincinnati. Turns out, that isn't true. Senior IRS officials in Washington D.C. knew about, and participated in, the targeting of conservative groups as early as 2011. So much for those "low-level" employees.
We Get Our Information From the News
Another argument repeatedly used by senior Obama administration officials when taking cover in the wake of scandal is, "We only found out about this through news reports."
Operation Fast and Furious
President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano all claimed they found out about Operation Fast and Furious through "news reports."
IRS Targeting Tea Party Groups
Yesterday during a joint press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron, President Obama said, "I first learned about it from the same news reports I think most people learned about this. I think it was on Friday."
Department of Justice Secretly Monitoring the Personal Phones of AP Reporters and Editors
Asked about when exactly the White House knew of the Department of Justice secretly monitoring the personal phones of Associated Press reporters and editors, Press Secretary Jay Carney said the administration found out through "press reports."
President Obama and his administration have claimed not to know anything about Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal or DOJ targeting the private phones of reporters and editors, but they sure know a whole lot about about openly gay NBA player Jason Collins, feminist activist Sandra Fluke, March Madness, Golf, Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, Rush Limbaugh and others.
This is the typical Obama administration scandal playbook: question the "facts," blame those at the bottom, cite press reports for information and repeatedly deny any responsibility.
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