Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Politics

Justice Department Declared Fox Reporter Possible “Co-Conspirator” In 2010 Investigation

President_Barack_Obama220px-Richard_NixonAs the scandal over the attack on the press continues in the Associated Press investigation, another such attack has come to light. The Obama Administration in 2010 investigated Fox News correspondent Jeff Rosen and the FBI treated him as “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” for merely speaking with a source. It was a perfectly Nixonian moment — yet another example of how Obama has adopted many of the same abuses as Richard Nixon. While journalists, public interest groups, and even Democratic members have denounced the attack on the media in the Associated Press investigation, Obama stepped forward to defend the investigation and praise the work of the Justice Department. He doubled down on those complaining about his Administration’s shocking record on whistleblowers and reporters by saying that he would make “no apologies” for the greatest attack on the media in decades.


Of course, Richard Nixon was denounced for using the Espionage Act of 1917 to target Daniel Ellsberg. Obama has brought twice the number of such prosecutions of all prior presidents under the Act. Holder was there to justify every attack on the media.

Like the AP, Rosen simply reported on leaked information and was treated as a potential criminal by the Obama Administration. A government adviser was accused of leaking information after a 2009 story was published online which said North Korea planned to respond to looming U.N. sanctions with another nuclear test. The Obama Administration obtained email records from Rosen and identified him as a possible co-conspirator in a court affidavit.

As with the terrorist plot story of the AP, this was a fairly standard story that clearly was going to be made public eventually. Indeed, in the AP story, the journalists held the story until getting the green light from the CIA. They were then told that the White House wanted to make the announcement of their successfully foiling an attack.

While some Democrats have voiced concern about these stories, the response from liberals and Democrats remains remarkable muted even after years of stories of the Obama Administration cracking down on journalists and whistleblowers. It is the same trade off that civil libertarians have been in other civil liberties controversies. Democrats have repeatedly remained silent in the face of such attacks by Obama in a type of cult of personality. We saw it with torture, warrantless surveillance, the kill list policy and other scandals. Now Obama is demanding that the faithful turn their back on the free press as their latest article of loyalty.

I will say it again. There will come a day when some else sits in the Oval Office and will demand the same sweeping authoritarian powers wielded by Obama. At that time, Democrats and liberals will not be able to step over the mountain of hypocrisy to utter a feeble, belated objection.

45 thoughts on “Justice Department Declared Fox Reporter Possible “Co-Conspirator” In 2010 Investigation”

  2. nick:

    yep, I always try to vote two or 3 times but I am always stopped by the blue hairs at the polling place. 🙂

  3. Bron, The budget calls for $6 in taxes for every $1 in reductions. I guess that’s Chicago balance.

    Bravo w/ the idea of an idependent. And I would vote for mespo. Hell, I lived in Chicago, I’ll vote for him twice, just fly in w/ a couple different ID’s. I wasn’t aware you lived in Va.

  4. AY:

    Sorry to dissapoint but it is a lovely day here, sun shining a slight breeze and a comfortable 78 or so.

    I just like to argue, Mike S says I aint so good at it, so I practice every chance I get. 🙂

    Sheeit, if half these liberal crackers sat down and we got drunk together, they would sware I was one of their own just lost in the wilderness. That I took up with a woman of ill repute and she snookered me.

    What man can say, in all honesty, that he was never taken in by a pretty face with a dark heart? And how many men overlook a plain woman who has a pure heart?

    Brother Anonymous, you know the world isnt fair and certaintity is anything but for we humans. I hope there is some sunshine in your neck of the woods.

  5. Bron,

    Speaking words I agree with again….. Oh what a lovely day it is wherever you are….

  6. nick:

    from the article Gene H posted:

    “Attkisson was careful not to make any specific allegations about who had been targeting her, but she said it was possible there was a connection.”

    A possible connection?

    They also had a slide show of pictures of Obama in various stages of life and I couldnt help thinking that he had a lot of goodwill when he took office. If he had played it right he could have had most of the country eating out of his hand, even many on the right. I thought the birther thing was hooey and still do, Benghazi was an unfortunate accident in time of war. But using the IRS and the Justice department to harass citizens who are just doing their jobs? No way, time for him to go.

    He really isnt much of a politician when all is said and done. He was in too much of a hurry to implement his grand plans. Like health care, as much as I dont like the idea of socialized medicine there are some aspects I like in this plan and many people feel the same way.

    As much as I dont like taxes, I am not opposed to a 2-3% increase if it will actually help pay down the deficit in terms of real dollars and not just allow them to reduce the rate of increase. If we went back to say 2008 levels and reduced 2 or 3% per year in real terms how would that hurt people? We probably p8ss away more than that on stupid stuff.

    He really missed an opportunity, maybe he can turn it around, I think people are still willing to cut him some slack. If he cant, 2014 is really gong to suck for him and democrats in general. Although I dont think it is going to be any better for republicans, I for one am hoping a decent independent runs and we can clean up both the house and the senate.

    Maybe Mespo will run for the senate as an independent here in VA, one can only hope.

  7. Gene, Thanks for the story. I go over to Huffpost once in awhile, but it gives me agita so not very often. Attkisson was admonished by her editor about being hard on the Obama administration. It’s still early, but I will keep repeating, this is how the Chicago Machine operates.

  9. It would be very agreeable to see each national news outlet make a very emphatic denouncement of the administration and the president for attacks on the freedom of the press. If they all did it, they would not be singled out, and the administration would be given what it deserves.

    The press needs to go on the offensive with reporting and exposing all the violations of this administration. It is as Professor Turley suggests, important to prevent another scoundrel from abusing his / her office.

  10. Nick,

    It’s just a time zone variation….. Soon…. Soon…

  11. nick, My son dated a girl from Madison West for a few years. She went to Carleton.

  13. SWM, I haven’t heard any Rep. besides the Seantor Jowly say the AP surveillance was righteous. Have you?

    I thought of you this morning. The local paper profiles high school athletes. There was a profile in the morning paper of a young woman, Lulu Allen-Waller. She runs track and cross country @ Madison West H.S., a very liberal school w/ many UW professor children. Her dream car is “High Speed Rail.” Her primary source for news is the “NYT.” She is a member of the Young Democrats and volunteers for Wisconsin Public TV. Her post graduation plans, “Nerding out and continuing to run @ Swarthmore.” I believe she’ll blend in just fine.

  14. I will say it again. There will come a day when some else sits in the Oval Office and will demand the same sweeping authoritarian powers wielded by Obama. At that time, Democrats and liberals will not be able to step over the mountain of hypocrisy to utter a feeble, belated objection.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Obama got the idea to demand – and use! – those sweeping authoritarian powers from his predecessor who threw some mighty childish tantrums and used lots of scare tactics to convince our Cretinous Congress Critters to let him do whatever the hell he wanted. If Repukes object to Obama, they better look around and see who did not repeal those illegal and unconstitutional bits of legislation before Obama took office….

    I will repeat myself for what seems like the billionth time since that monstrously unconstitutional and illegal Patriot Act was passed and then added to with more outrageous unconstitutional “temporary” laws: Congress needs to repeal AUMF, Patriot Act, MCA ’06 (officially give us back our habeas corpus rights, dammit!!!), FISA fiasco ’08, and toss in a repeal or de-funding of the ‘office of faith-based initiatives’ which is run out of the White House and is (to my mind) a clear violation of the separation of church and state…, and they need to repeal Obama’s MCA ’09, too (which should never have been passed in the first place), and then add banning the drone bombings inside other countries – dropping bombs from drones by the US military are “acts of war” so we’ve violated many treaties during both the Bushista years AND the Obama years. Stop it, dammit!!!

  15. Now is this where we all sing in goose step Hail to the King……and Shout in Greecian style “Heil Obama”…..

    Blouise,

    Excellent…..excellent…..

  17. what are the parallels between the rupert murdoch and AP scandels

  20. Mein Gott. We have a Media Giant dealing with secret intelligence about the Nuclear Midget. We dont know the intentions of the Midget, the source of the intelligene or even the gist of it.

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