Even if we are to take Carney at his word, his remark comes as little assurance. The president may believe that journalists should never be prosecuted for doing their job. What's at stake, then, is what this administration considers the job of a journalist. In the context of the ongoing war on leaks and an administration invested in the tight control of information, the presidential view on protected journalistic activity seems a far cry from a robust Fourth Estate.

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After almost four and half years on the job, he’s been the first attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress, been called “rabidly un-American,” and even reportedly tried to resign. A LexisNexis search for “Eric Holder” “grilled” and “Congress” returns 534 articles. Attorneys general don’t often last two presidential terms.

Could the AP phone records controversy could be a tipping point for the embattled AG, whom even Democrats have been wary to support?

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Three congressional committees are investigating and the FBI is looking into potential civil rights violations at the IRS, Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Other potential crimes include making false statements to authorities and violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in some partisan political activities, Holder said.

President Barack Obama said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew had asked for and accepted Steven T. Miller's resignation.

"Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it," Obama said Wednesday evening in a televised statement from the White House. "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives."

Miller's ouster came five days after an IRS supervisor publicly revealed that agents had improperly targeted groups with "tea party" or "patriots" in their applications for tax-exempt status. It came a day after an inspector general's report blamed ineffective management in Washington for allowing it to happen for more than 18 months.

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According to press secretary Jay Carney, the president asked Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to reintroduce legislation that would help reporters protect the identity of confidential sources and help them ask a federal judge to quash subpoenas for their phone records.

The very same legislation was introduced in 2009 by Schumer, but the Obama administration refused to support it in light of WikiLeaks' release of thousands of government documents. Now, on the back of a scandal drawing broad and fierce criticism, the White House is pushing the bill. The bill that will be reintroduced includes the caveat that the media shield will exclude reporters who publish leaks deemed to cause “significant harm” to national security. A loophole no doubt wide enough to leave whistle-blowers open to surveillance and persecution.

Via the New York Times:

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Holder said that the investigation will be based in Washington, "that way I think we could have a better impact nationwide," but "the facts will take us wherever they take us. It will not be limited to one city."

When asked which criminal statutes the IRS might have violated, Holder said the investigation will look at potential civil rights violations, and the "possibility of false statements." He stipulated that when it comes to classifying groups as 501(c)(4)s, "I think that some inquiry into that area is appropriate, but I think it should not depend on the political persuasion of the group."

Holder was also asked about the subpoena of the Associated Press's phone records, which he confirmed was authorized by Deputy Attorney General James Cole. "I am not familiar with the reasons why the subpoena was constructed in the way that it was, because I'm simply not a part of the case," Holder said, referring to the fact that he had recused himself from the investigation into leaked intelligence about a CIA operation in Yemen. But Holder maintained that though he does not know the details of the subpoenas, "I have faith in the people involved ... that they were aware of the rules."

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Holder interrupted Issa: "No, no, that's what you typically do -- No, I am not going to stop talking now," Holder said, adding: "It is inappropriate and too consistent with the way in which you conduct yourself as a member of Congress. It's unacceptable, and it's shameful."

Holder and Issa, R-Calif., have a pretty contentious relationship, and are currently mired in a court battle over internal Department of Justice documents related to the "Fast and Furious" gun-running case. Issa, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, successfully pushed to hold Holder in contempt of Congress last year for refusing to release the documents.

Watch, via TPM:

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Original post:

In a meeting with a small group of progressive reporters today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Department of Justice was "wrong" in the way it handled the leak investigation that targeted Associated Press reporters.

Reid reiterated that he "can't really defend the Department of Justice at all," and mentioned the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder had recused himself, something Holder first acknowledged in a press conference yesterday afternoon. "I think what happened, he recused himself, is something that is wrong," Reid said.

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Attorney General Eric Holder said he ordered the FBI to investigate Friday — the day the IRS publicly acknowledged that it had singled out conservative groups.

"Those (actions) were, I think, as everyone can agree, if not criminal, they were certainly outrageous and unacceptable," Holder said. "But we are examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations."

Holder is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.

Three congressional committees already are investigating the IRS for singling out tea party and other conservative groups during the 2010 congressional elections and the 2012 presidential election. But Holder's announcement would take the matter to another level if investigators are able to prove that laws were broken.

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In an upcoming report, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration says lax management allowed the practice to go on for 18 months. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report ahead of its release.

The IRS on Friday apologized for targeting tea party as well as other conservative groups.

The report said that when asked by investigators, IRS supervisors said the criteria they used to decide which groups they examined were not influenced by people or organizations outside the IRS.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story is below.

The Justice Department is investigating the Internal Revenue Service for targeting tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

Holder said the FBI will investigate to see if any laws were broken. He said he ordered the criminal investigation Friday - the day the IRS publicly acknowledged that it had singled out conservative groups.

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"Even given the significant public interest in enforcing criminal laws that protect our national security, seeking toll records associated with media organizations is undertaken only after all other reasonable alternative investigative steps have been taken," Cole wrote.

After a "comprehensive investigation" by the Justice Department, the letter continues, the DOJ decided to subpoena the records. "The subpoenas were limited to a reasonable period of time and did not seek the content of any calls," Cole continued. "In addition, these records have been closely held and reviewed solely for the purposes of this ongoing criminal investigation. The records have not been and will not be provided for use in any other investigations."

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In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, current Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Warren challenges decisions to settle with banks, offering a slap on the wrist, as opposed to jail sentences.  whether they had done any cost-benefit research into prosecuting a bank versus settling with one, which is equivalent to a slap on the wrist for a profitable financial institution.

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The subpoena was the result of an investigation into leaked details of a CIA operation in Yemen in 2012. In a statement earlier on Tuesday, a DOJ official said that Holder had recused himself from the decision to subpoena the records early on in the investigation to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. The decision was ultimately made by Deputy Attorney General James Cole.

"As the Attorney General testified in June 2012, he was interviewed by the FBI in connection with the investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information," a DOJ official said, TPM reports. "To avoid any potential appearance of a conflict of interest, the Attorney General recused himself from this matter."

Holder reiterated this in the press conference, saying that though he was not involved in the decision, he is "confident" that Cole "followed all of the appropriate regulations."

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The records obtained by the Justice Department listed incoming and outgoing calls, and the duration of each call, for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and the main number for AP reporters in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP.

In all, the government seized those records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. The exact number of journalists who used the phone lines during that period is unknown but more than 100 journalists work in the offices whose phone records were targeted on a wide array of stories about government and other matters.

In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies.

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Following Rand Paul's 13-hour filibuster of John Brennan's CIA directorship confirmation over this issue, Eric Holder followed up with another letter to Paul. Only two sentences long, the missive read, "It has come to my attention that you have asked an additional question: 'Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?' The answer that question is no."

Paul has said he is "quite happy" with this message and ended his objection to moving ahead with the nomination of John Brennan -- who was confirmed by a Senate vote as CIA director Thursday.

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The Justice Department has not brought a single criminal conviction against a Wall Street executive four years after a financial crisis proven to have been precipitated by fraudulent behavior. On Wednesday, Holder admitted that the vast size of major banks and the structural integration in the economy makes criminal prosecutions basically impossible.

"I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy," Holder said, according to the Hill. "And I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large."

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The number of antigovernment “Patriot” groups on the American radical right hit an all-time high in 2012, the fourth straight year of explosive growth, according to a report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). As the new year began, serious talk of gun control, prompted by a Connecticut school massacre in December, fueled even more rage on the right, and the threat of violence loomed .

The new report, contained in the latest issue of the quarterly investigative journal Intelligence Report, found that the conspiracy-minded Patriot groups, which numbered only 149 in 2008, soared over the first four years of Barack Obama’s presidency to 1,360 in 2012 — an astounding 813% increase. At the same time, it found that hate groups remained at near-record levels of over 1,000 (see interactive map and state-by-state lists of 2012 hate groups here).

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At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Holder whether Congress could prohibit the targeted killing of Americans in America. “Do you believe Congress can pass a law prohibiting POTUS to use lethal force on U.S. soil?” he asked directly, explaining he meant the prohibition would apply only where a person did not present an imminent threat.

“I’m not sure that such a bill would be constitutional,” the attorney general responded. “It might run contrary to the Article II powers that the president has.” Article II is the section of the Constitution that lays out the president’s authority as commander in chief of the military.

The exchange suggests that the administration believes that Congress cannot limit the president’s authority in such an area, a view consistent with public Office of Legal Counsel opinions on the war.

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