Holder Challenged at Hearing

Eric Holder Challenged At Hearing Over AP Subpoenas, IRS Scandal

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans and Democrats on Wednesday challenged Attorney General Eric Holder over the Justice Department's handling of the investigation of national security leaks and its failure to talk to The Associated Press before issuing subpoenas for the news service's telephone records.

In exchanges that often turned testy, Holder defended the inquiry while pointing out that he had removed himself from any decision on subpoenas. The attorney general explained that he had been interviewed about what he knew of national security developments that prompted the probe.

The investigation follows congressional demands into whether Obama administration officials leaked secret information to the media last year to enhance the president's national security credentials in an election year.

"It's an ongoing matter and an ongoing matter in which I know nothing," Holder told the House Judiciary Committee.

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for the AP, seizing the records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to the AP and its journalists in April and May 2012. . . .  (more)

. . .The frustration extended to Republicans and Democrats.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/eric-holder-hearing_n_3281685.html