Chilling: Obama’s DOJ spied on Fox News’ James Rosen; Criminalizes reporting

March 30, 2017

http://twitter.com/#!/ggreenwald/status/336457136391483392

When you’ve lost Glenn Greenwald …

http://twitter.com/#!/finnertymike/status/336462703637966850

Dangerous indeed. And beyond chilling.

http://twitter.com/#!/erikj03/status/336455781513834496

We won’t hold our breath.

http://twitter.com/#!/RBPundit/status/336460146039468032

That’s right: The Department of Justice probed and tracked Fox News’ James Rosen.

http://twitter.com/#!/MeanMrPete/status/336468006622334976

For reporting.

http://twitter.com/#!/RyanLizza/status/336451591307665408

In this instance, they didn’t just obtain phone records, which is bad enough.

http://twitter.com/#!/marthamaccallum/status/336470915212779520
http://twitter.com/#!/ron_fournier/status/336441170152542208

The Washington Post has more:

They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.

The case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, the government adviser, and James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, bears striking similarities to a sweeping leaks investigation disclosed last week in which federal investigators obtained records over two months of more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the Associated Press.

http://twitter.com/#!/NolteNC/status/336458048400924672

WaPo may have tried to play that down, but others will not.

http://twitter.com/#!/NolteNC/status/336458359010115584

Glenn Greenwald has more in his article at The Guardian:

New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ’s attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, that US intelligence believed North Korea would respond to additional UN sanctions with more nuclear tests – something Rosen then reported. Kim did not obtain unauthorized access to classified information, nor steal documents, nor sell secrets, nor pass them to an enemy of the US. Instead, the DOJ alleges that he merely communicated this innocuous information to a journalist – something done every day in Washington – and, for that, this arms expert and long-time government employee faces more than a decade in prison for “espionage”.

The focus of the Post’s report yesterday is that the DOJ’s surveillance of Rosen, the reporter, extended far beyond even what they did to AP reporters. The FBI tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, traced the timing of his calls, and – most amazingly – obtained a search warrant to read two days worth of his emails, as well as all of his emails with Kim. In this case, said the Post, “investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.” It added that “court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist”.

Unbelievable. To put the icing on the disturbing cake, the DOJ accused Rosen of committing crimes in order to obtain the warrants. The crime of doing his job.

http://twitter.com/#!/AlexPappas/status/336456360755613696

Seriously.

http://twitter.com/#!/ggreenwald/status/336465422331305985

Citizens are rightly outraged.

http://twitter.com/#!/Safety_Pants/status/336462536138448897
http://twitter.com/#!/hale_razor/status/336457853248368640

Forward! Into thuggery.

What say you, President Obama?

http://twitter.com/#!/RightWingNerd/status/336468100574765056

Update: Fox issues a hell of a statement.

http://twitter.com/#!/nycsouthpaw/status/336541924834025473

Amen.

And Rosen is not alone. Fox News’ Megyn Kelly reports that another FNC reporter and a producer were targeted by the DOJ.