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.
At a time when President Obama’s administration is under renewed scrutiny for an unprecedented number of leak investigations, the Kim case provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of one such probe.
Court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist — and raise the question of how often journalists have been investigated as closely as Rosen was in 2010. The case also raises new concerns among critics of government secrecy about the possible stifling effect of these investigations on a critical element of press freedom: the exchange of information between reporters and their sources.
“Search warrants like these have a severe chilling effect on the free flow of important information to the public,” said First Amendment lawyer Charles Tobin, who has represented the Associated Press, but not in the current case. “That’s a very dangerous road to go down.”
In response to these explosive details, other reporters and journalists are speaking out, some via Twitter.
The first is a sentence from a source that literally makes me think pigs are flying and it is awfully cold down in hell at the moment.
HuffPost Media:
Dear many of our commenters: this is one time when you should be siding with Fox News huff.to/10IM6mT
— HuffPost Media (@HuffPostMedia) May 20, 2013
Ryan Lizza,Washington Correspondent for The New Yorker and contributor for CNN, has added to his public profile "aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator," and posted the following tweets.
Case against Fox's Rosen, in which O admin is criminalizing reporting, makes all of the other "scandals" look like giant nothing burgers.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 20, 2013
According to search warrant, DOJ went after Rosen's personal gmail account.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 20, 2013
[UPDATE] Another tweet from Lizza:
If James Rosen's "clandestine communications plan" were illegal, every journalist in Washington would be locked up. Unreal.[End Update]
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) May 20, 2013
Far left liberal Glenn Greenwald, Columnist and blogger for the Guardian:
Accusing James Rosen of committing crimes - for basic reporting - may be the most dangerous thing the Obama DOJ has done yet
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2013
Spencer Ackerman, Incoming national security editor at the Guardian
LOL a "covert communications plan" between journalist & source. Like basic reportorial opsec? washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare-p… Disgusting.
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) May 20, 2013
@noahpollak You should take that up with Fox News for reporting it. I have a problem with DOJ surveillance of a reporter doing his job.
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) May 20, 2013
Eli Lake, Senior national security reporter for Newsweek/Daily Beast
Serious idea. Instead of calling it Obama's war on whistleblowers, let's just call it what it is: Obama's war on journalism.
— Eli Lake (@EliLake) May 20, 2013
Karen Tumulty, National political correspondent for the Washington Post
The alternative to "conspiring" with leakers to get information: Just writing what the government tells you. @jamesrosenfnc
— Karen Tumulty(@ktumulty) May 20, 2013
Howard Fineman, Editorial Director, Huffington Post Media Group. Analyst, NBC/MSNBC
#Fox Rosen probe as bad/worse than #AP: in unprecedented move, govt says he "conspired" with leaker to get info; that's what reporters do!
— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) May 20, 2013
Ben Smith, Editor-in-Chief of http://BuzzFeed.com
Justice accuses @jamesrosenfnc, a v good reporter, of being "an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator" for reporting?? washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare-p…
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) May 20, 2013
This is just a small sample of the outrage from journalists to the left, right and in the center, over the Obama administration's direct attack against the freedom of the press.
On the bright side, Obama and his DOJ have managed to unite those journalists from the left, right and center.... unfortunately for Obama, they are all uniting against him.
Let us now see how fast Obama gets past the latest IRS, AP Phone record seizure and Benghazi scandals without members of the press willing to carry his water.
[Update] Here is the 44-page PDF of the warrant for Rosen's Gmail account.