the "a.p." got no notice about until receiving the letter. specifically the justice department says it secretly obtained two months worth of phone records for more than 20 "a.p." phone lines. includes the main a.p. numbers in washington, d.c. and hartford, connecticut, as well as the a.p. officer for reporters who cover the house of representatives. and it covers the work phone numbers and the personal phone numbers for five "a.p." reporters and their editor. now, there's no indication that the justice department housed the recorded content of those phone calls. but what they've got, apparently, at least, the incoming call numbers, the outgoing call numbers, and the duration of each call. now, in response to this notification, the "a.p." sent a scathing letter to eric holder. there can be no justification for an overbroad, these reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the news gathering activities undertaken by the a.p. during a two-month period, provide a road map to the n

the a.p. believes this story prompted the secret investigation the cia uncovered a plot to bomb a u.s. bound airliner a plot originated in yemen and was carried out by. the arabian peninsula by reporting this al qaeda was put on notice that the cia had an inside look at their activities be a piece as the justice department did not say why they needed the information but says among the nearly two dozen telephone records collected at least five of them were from reporters working on the story in question this was a very serious. very serious leak and a very very serious leak. i've been a prosecutor since one thousand nine hundred six and i have to say that this is among if not the most serious it is even the top two or three most serious leaks that never see it put the american people at risk and that is not hyperbole eric holder announced today that he was recusing himself from this a.p. investigation the prominent news agency condemned the government's actions in a letter to holder yesterday a

is the a.p. -- is it the a.p.'s position that the justice department is within its rights to be investigating these leaks? it's just that they are doing it in a way that is too broad. >> sure. there's no question that the justice department has the right to investigate leaks, by think the key, you put your hand on when you were setting this up. there is an inherent conflict between the government's ability to keep secrets and the ability of people to oversee their government, that you have to have access to government information. you need confidential sources to give you that information, or the only things you're going to know about the government is what they will tell you so we've always had that throughout our history. the real problem here is that in the mess after watergate, some of the circumstances you were just walking through, regulations were put in place to try to mediate that line to set up rules that would help us not overreach one way or the other, to give the press a zone of protection that they co

the a.p.ad seized these records? >> the government told the a.p. they seized the records because it's required to do so under the department of justice guidelines. if they seize records without prior notice, they are obligated to let the press know in no more than 90 days and that's what happened here. >> when were the records seized? >> i'm sorry? >> when were the records seized? >> well, we don't know exactly, greta. the notice given on friday basically said we are telling you pursuant to the regulations that we've seized the records of these 20 phone lines. we don't know. sometime in the last 90 days because they were required to give notice within 90 days. but whether it was three months ago or last month, we don't know. >> do you have any sense whether it was to seek information or to intimidate? do you have a gut sense as to what this was? >> well, you know, i i take the department of justice at their word when they said it's part of a leaks investigation. they had done a number of other

>> the a.p. thing is a scandal. >> the idea that he we're giving the administration the benefit of the doubt. >> bill: i'm not giving the benefit of anything. >> you are saying it's not a scandal it is a scandal. >> wild morning with both the left and the right challenging me. we will show you what happened and analyze the growing pressure on president obama. this is about getting to the truth so people can be held accountable and we can prevent this from happening again. >> what does senator rubio think about what makes the baby mushy in philadelphia, there is another doctor under scrutiny. is it legal will have the story. caution. you are about to enter the no spin zone. the factor begins right now. >> hi, i'm bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. analyzing the side show. that is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. with president obama calling the benghazi controversy a side show yesterday. it is instructive to look at public opinion on the issue right now. according to

what we know is what the a.p. has told us what the letter from the justice department informed them. that 20 phone lines were monitored, these are the personal and cell phone numbers of some reporters, these are also office phone lines and the gentle phone numbers, the phone numbers of the "associated press" offices in new york and hartford, connecticut. it's perfectly legal for the government to do this. it's done it before. but there are two things here that are unusual, andrea. one is the number of reporters involved. and secondly, the breadth of the number of lines that were, the subject of this record requirement from the government. >> pete, my understanding is just alluded to of the fisa laws, the terms of engagement, if you will. they've done this before. this administration has been much more aggressive than past administrations in going after reporters involving national security. they've used this and expanded it. we've seen what happened with the "new york times" and others. in the past it's been indiv

but it's on a.p. for trusting obama. left's golden rule, all is permissible but i need not tolerated you which is why you can target the tea party. sadly the a.p. knows what that is like. so we've got three scandals a flurry of corruption that has heads spinning faster an load of wet laundry. if there was profession that cover such events we can dream but today journalists love obama. they are like the memphis mafia, to keep elvis presley happy and that ended well. each scandal is a flied bacon and peanut butter sandwich. it's not so bad when the heart of the administration finally gives out. >> andrea, what happened to no drama obama. this guy is lifetime channel mini series. when this is s in going to stop? >> andrea: i like lifetime mini series. watch what mini series. you said spinning laundry. how about spinning dirty laundry that isn't getting clean. this isn't a president that hasn't been held account be a. he is getting very angry and defensive. "washington post" gave him four on benghazi but they have been lying

the a.p. is, of course, a nonprofit organization and it is relied on by everyone else in the media. when you're considering the implications of that, going after the a.p. in particular is in some ways more probable matic than going after some other institution. the a.p. has pointed out aggressively that the big problem with this is how broad and sweeping it was. chris: why did they do the big sweep? >> the initial republican desire was to catch the white house in revealing this secret that our closest ally had an agent inside al qaeda and yemen. john brennan in a background conference call with journalists had let this out. it turned out that wasn't where the information came from. john brennan was doing this because of the a.p.'s reporting, pounding on the white house, and they were terrified that this agent in place would be compromised, may be killed. that was what was going on. this began really as an attempt on the white house. chris: let me get this straight so people understand this. th

on the a.p., the a.p. ought to be brought in front of the justice department for breaking the espionage act for leaking that information. on the irs, that is just terrible, horrible, ridiculous scandal and should be dealt with. but i think the other two, when you keep saying these are all scandals, the a.p. thing is not anywhere near a scandal for me. >> why do you think he's such a fantastic communicator? let me give you a few examples. on the benghazi piece, because they weren't transparent at the beginning, they have dealt with a nine-month-long process and now the media's giving birth to the story. on the second one, on the irs piece, no one told the president until friday that this was happening even though jay carney says the white house was notified two weeks ago. then the president put out a very strong statement but only after the media coverage five days later. statement very strong. just because he can say a sentence well, i don't think that makes him a great communicator. >> maybe from the stan

the a.p. is calling this a massive and unprecedented intrusion into their constitutional right to report the news. nbc's tom costello is standing by in our d.c. bureau with more on this. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. this is, in fact, a late-breaking story with the associated press moving this throughout the afternoon. it talks about the fact that this is an unprecedented breach and that it impacts the activities of the a.p., the primary news wire for the united states. this centers around an investigation into who leaked information to the a.p. in may of 2012 about a cia operative in yemen who helped prevent an al qaeda plot to bring down a u.s.-bound airliner with a bomb. the obama administration was furious about that leak, claiming it jeopardized national security. to find out who might have been the leaker, the a.p. claims the justice department obtained lists of incoming and outgoing phone calls from a.p. editors and reporters as well as reporters' personal phone numbers ove

the "a.p."ork at the places whose phone numbers and phone records were seized by the justice department. >> kathleen, the origins of the investigation have to do with a story that the "a.p." broke on a plot in yemen that originated in yemen, correct? >> we're not entirely sure about that, but that's our best guess. >> but at the time that that story ran, it ran after the associated press cooperated with the government's request to delay the story, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> when did you find out from the department of justice, from the government that these records were subpoenaed that the justice department was eavesdropping on reporters? >> we got a very brief e-mail friday afternoon from the u.s. attorney and the district of columbia saying that they had these records of these 20 phone lines. >> and did it outline in that notification to you? did it outline the time frame in which they were eavesdropping on reporters? >> april and may of 2012. >> that vague? >> yep. >> kathleen,

the a.p. called the spying on reporters a massive unprecedented intrusion, for which there can be no possible justification. with a brand-new spying on reporters scandal churning around in washington, suddenly, two of the people we most likely to ask strongly-waorded about that question, were on the tv at the same time. it was almost enough to break cable news. jay carney and eric holder may have been synced up when it comes to answers about the strongly-worded questions about spying on the a.p. because they said essentially the same thing. they both denied knowing anything about it. really. take a listen. >> we are not involved at the white house in any decisions made in connection with ongoing criminal investigations. as those matters are handled appropriately by the justice department. >> i'm not familiar with all that went into the formulation of the subpoena. i was recused from that matter. >> i know what you're thinking -- i suspect what you're thinking because i was thinking the same th

the a.p. and provide a road map to news gathering operations and disclose information about a.p.'s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know. media reacted. here is one example from the huffington post online. this story really got the attention of everyone in the media. >> it certainly got mine. it's the one story that has brought the media together. left, right, large, small because all of a sudden, ours is being gored and we have to remind the american people that a free press is one of those things we often take for granted but it's essential in protect oog democracy. but there was one journalist who apparently didn't get the talking points, if i can use that word and that is wolf blitzer, who said if there is a national security issue at stake here, shouldn't the government have the right to tap my phone? no, wolf, it shouldn't. >> jon: national security leak or no, who decides if it is national security versus freedom of the press? >> administration h

the a.p.ry now. he recused himself under that story. it seems under that rationale he should recuse himself from every story, because the press is going to cover it. >> i know a lot of people in the press, i talk to the press all the time, therefore i can't be part of it. >> we'll get to holder's reaction. let's reverse them here. let's start with a14 this is the a.p., the d.o.j. has sort of seized phone records from a number of a.p. employees in relation to the story the a.p. broke about a terror plot. we're not concerned about the terror plot. we're concerned about the leak. that's what the obama administration cares about. near i can tell, that's all they care about. holder recuses himself and therefore can't answer any questions. makes you wonder why he went to the press conference in the first police. >> i don't know the facts there. you'd have to refer to the letter that the deputy attorney general prepared. everyone's seen it in draft form. that will be for the deputy attorney general a

the a.p. says the government secretly collected phone records of reporters during a two-month period last year and it questions whether that was related to a probe into leaks of the details of a foiled terror plot last year. joining me is constitutional first amendment attorney, floyd abrams, author of "friend of the court" on the front lines with the first amendment. welcome to you. i've got to say, this whole transparency thing with the president is crumbling, isn't it, because first of all -- let's go back two weeks. the whole guantanamo bay issue rumbles on, a place he said he would shut down but didn't. then we have benghazi, where we have apparently 12 corrections in terms of talking points. then we have the irs targeting tea partiers and people who use the word patriot or say they want to improve their country, and now we have this. we have the justice department targeting a.p., the associated press. what do you make of all this? how transparent is this? because it seems to me to be pre

the a.p.'s kathleen carroll says they listed outgoing calls from april and may of 2012. >> they haven't told us what they're looking for and nor have they explained why we got no prior notice which our lawyers tell us not only is customary but required. >> woodruff: a.p.'s president and c.e.o. gary pruitt sent a letter of protest to attorney general eric holder. in it he wrote: he said it amounts to "a serious interference with a.p.'s constitutional right to gather and report the news." pruitt demanded that d.o.j. return the records and destroy any copies, but this afternoon, attorney general holder said he had recused himself at the start of the probe. instead he said deputy attorney general james kohl authorized the subpoena for the a.p. records >> i don't know all that went into the formulation of the subpoena. this was a very serious leak and a very, very serious leak. i've been a prosecutor since 1976 and i have to say that this is among if not the most serious it's within the top two or t

that same day a.p. reporter adam goldman spoke to the newshour's kwame holman about the decision to publish >> you had been in discussions with the u.s. government about holding thstory and decided to go with it today. the government did not want this story reported? >> last week my colleagues and i learned about this plot as it was unfolding. and we agreed for national security reasons that we would not publish once those concerns passed we decided today that the public had a right to know that the u.s. had thwarted what we considered to be a very serious plot against aviation. >> woodruff: the justice department has not confirmed that story is the focus of the investigation and the white house, ja cor would n giv specifics. >> i can't comment on the specifics but i can tell you the president feels strongly that we need a -- the press to be able to be unfettered in its pursuit of investigative journalism. he is also mindful of the need for secret and classified information to remain secret and classifi

the justice department informing the a.p. they had obtained records about their employees without their knowledge. if you want to sound smart today, tell the a.p. it serves more than 1,700 united states newspapers as well as 243 broadcast bureaus. >> tell me. >> its news content is seen by half of the world's population on any given day. >> wow. >> remember that. >>> let's hit the cooler. >> all right. thanks, brian. we -- there's a lot of talk in the news about the irs and how it was involved in investigating conservative groups. here's how jon stewart is reacting to the headlines. >> facts don't matter to that side. in their paranoid fever dreams, the state department and the cia changing talking points as irrefutable evidence. despite there being no shred of evidence to validate their full-blown victimization complex. >> the internal revenue service admitted today that some of its employees targeted conservative political groups for extra scrutiny in violation of its own policy and despite earlier denials. >> mother [ blee

coming up with the news buzzing about the a.p. phone records scandal there is still more to uncover do the department of justice even need its own standards with the subpoenas they process to do the phone tracking will answer that question ahead. and silence is golden but it's another story in federal court gerald koch is an anarchist subpoenaed to testify before the federal grand jury and he's decided not to cooperate now he's facing the threat of jail time we'll have more details on the case from new york in just a moment. we're now at one the one hundred day mark for the guantanamo bay hunger strike critics continue to question the obama administration's lack of action in closing down the detention facility and then just look at how the strike is progressing and its future possibilities in just just a few moments. it's thursday may sixteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm going lopez and you are watching r t well it has been a bad it week for the obama administration it seems the curse of the second term might have finally sett

didn't just collect the phone records from the a.p. newsroom it also tracked personal call logs and records from the house of representatives press gallery well today r.t. correspondent was walt went to capitol hill and brings us more on the story. the controversy between the government and a major media organization continues i have to say that this is among if not the most serious it is within the top two or three most serious leaks never seeing attorney general eric holder justifying the department of justice spying on reporters from the associated press since holder has recused himself to avoid a conflict of interest he points his finger at the deputy attorney general what appears to be contrary to to the law and standard procedure. well again there are exceptions to some of the rules that you pointed out and i. i have faith in the people who actually were responsible for this case that they were aware of the rules and that the followed and a letter to the associated press the deputy attorney general james cole insists that obtaini

so specifically with the a.p. piece, if the a.p. compromised an active terror operation that helped the terrorists that is something that needs to be investigated. the government's first job is to keep us safe. >> eric: a.p. held off better part of full week, they held back. also, white house didn't seem to have problems when it was about leaking the bin laden kill that ended up on the front page of the "new york times." >> leaks that put us in jeopardy and tip off terrorists are unacceptable. it wasn't acceptable when the bush administration did it with valerie plame. >> why not ask them. tell the people they are doing this. look where we going with this. while they are doing this, the irs have big push to have people's electronically filed. they want your medical records electronically submitted as well, too. all this information is out there. while the world is advancing technologically they are taking advantage of us. >> eric: they want more information, then to administer our health care. and then this the way not for profit st

i want to start with the a.p. story.he obama administration has been trying to cap leaks of classified information and has prosecuted six people for leaking secret material. do you think the justice department went too far in what they were doing with the secret subpoena? >> you know, i think there's an awful lot of facts that this still have to be determined. but what you can say with absolute certainty at this point is this is an administration that has a culture that runs through stop signs. that doesn't understand that there are boundaries that the constitution means something. that seizing these documents from folks who are trying to report on the administration strikes at the very heart of our democracy and transparency. this is an administration that now has demonstrated that politics play into just about every activity they're involved in. there's very little effort put into managing and putting in proper constraints so that these really dangerous things don't happen in our country. >> meanwhile, sir, in washingt

and instead of telling the a.p. and giving them a chance to challenge it, the a.p. wasn't told until friday. a year after the fact. this can be seen as violating the first amendment freedom of the press and the fourth amendment, protecting against unreasonable searches. the a.p. calls it a massive and unprecedented intrusion. add go, there can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone, communications, of the a.p. and its reporters. these records reveal communications with confidential sources across all the news gathering activities. provide a road map to the operations and disclose information about a.p.'s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know. the man in the hot seat is attorney general eric holder. this is what he had to say just over an hour ago. >> this was a very serious leak. it put the american people at risk. and trying to determine who was responsible for that i think required very aggressive action. we've investigated cases on the basis of the facts. not as a result of a policy

the a.p. or journalists affected. in possible justification for overbroad communications of the associated press and its reporters. these records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources. we regard this action by the department of justice as a serious interference with the a.p.'s constitutional rights to gather and report the news. while the justice department's investigation and its apparent connection to the a.p. have not been publicly disposed by the department. the letter came from one of two u.s. attorneys assigned in june of last year to lead criminal investigations into national security intelligence leaks. in a statement made today the u.s. attorney's office said quote we must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation. because we value the freedom of the press we are always careful and deliberateive in seeking the right flow of information. blocked the aggressive prosecution strategy

justice department has admitted to spying on associated press reporters a.p. condemned the sweepings phone surveillance as an invasion of privacy and a threat to the freedom of the press. has more on the story and of course its implications. the u.s. justice department secretly obtained two months of telephone records targeting a.p. reporters and editors work and personal phone numbers a few believes more than one hundred of its journalists may have been caught up in this surveillance week the a.p. boss called it a massive and unprecedented intrusion into how news organizations operate the justice department acknowledged having spied on a.p. journalists but would not say why it sought the records they cited an ongoing investigation a peace process and said the government stalked and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation now the guess is that the investigation had to do with a.p. is reporting on a cia operation in yemen last year and the government's possible hundred fleet the administration's unprecedent

with news buzzing about the a.p. phone tracking scandal there's still more tell uncover did the department of justice even meet its own standards with the subpoenas they process to do the phone tracking will answer that question in today's show. and it's thursday and that means it's a trip to the digital world in tonight's tech report we'll talk about apps that can protect your privacy or help you boycott certain products certain the circuits and bits of your digital privacy coming up. it's thursday may sixteenth eight pm in washington d.c. lopez and you are watching our t.v. while the hunger strike out the guantanamo bay detention facility is now entering its one hundredth day and still there is no end in sight of the one hundred sixty six people being kept at that detention facility one hundred two of them are reportedly participating in the strike to various degrees for a look back at the last one hundred days political commentator sam sachs reports. this is gone tom obey settled on a picturesque caribbean island.

merely returns the a.p. the telephone toll records that the department subpoenaed and destroy all copies per it went on to say that this collection of phone records could not be could actually compromised numerous confidential sources for all types of reports for the latest on the case i'm joined now by matthew feeney he's an associate editor at reason twenty four seven thank you so much for joining me so what is the latest information coming out of this case obviously i just gave a little bit of background but what type of information specifically did the d.o.j. extract from these types of phone records well at the moment with a developing story but what we know at the moment is that it was records of telephone calls between certain journalists and editors in the associated press. specifically regarding it as i worked on a particular story about a terrorist plot that the cia foiled in yemen that was supposed to mark the anniversary of osama bin laden's death so what types of information could they possibly

they want to identify the source of a may 2012 a.p. report on a c.i.a. operation to that th wart an al-qaeda plot. five reporters were involved. which is why the seizure of so many phone records is deeply concerning. >> the government has every right to investigate, however they have to do it with a narrow focus. this starts to look like it was lot broader than that. >> reporter: republicans and democrats are uncomfortable? >> i don't know who did or why it was done but there is no way to justify this. >> they charge the obama white house leaked classified information on the osama bin laden raid, a cyber attack in the iranian program to help his credentials. a senior white house official was able to expand on it without consequences. >> can you tell me that they have inside control or inside information on the a.p. bomb plot in may of last year. >> i had had a teleconference with previous administrations who were going to be out on talk shows on a night that ide was intercepted. i wanted to make sure they understood the nature of the threat and what it w

with respect to the a.p. phone records on, several occasions, reporters in the briefing room reminded jay that under this administration, there had been more leak investigations than any administration prior combined. those are not about the current investigation. they have nothing to do with the current investigation. they're about a message being sent by the administration with regard to the ability of the press to do investigative journalism. what jay did was hide behind the curtain of investigation to not answer those questions. he said the president respects the press. that he supports the measures to ensure the freedom of the press but they wouldn't get too into details because of the investigation. that was a dodge. >> let me bring you this. it was congress that asked the obama administration to investigate these security leaks. some republicans felt that the administration was deliberate in information that would make the president look good, leading into the election. this is how these investigations

these actions saying that the a.p. compromised counterterror operations they should be investigated but of course the victims of the scandal the reporters at a.p. are up in arms and rightly so journalists and their sources depend on confidentiality people are much less less likely to die of bold crucial information if they think that they're under surveillance and you know what else is inferior it in about this despite all the shock and all over this. particular story this is far from the first time the d.o.j. is completely circumvented the law according to senior declan mccullough an updated f.b.i. manual details just how the feds can access americans e-mails without first having a warrant it clearly is the justice department holds itself above the law and that team holder doesn't think that they should face any restrictions when it comes to spine or obtaining private information and the d.o.d.'s already implemented a secret cyber security program that monitors online activities in the same way. would have to keep in

a.p. news agency discovers its journalists have been under surveillance for months with the u.s. government secretly monitoring their calls. deadly car blast rocks damascus across the border in turkey people vent anger at government support for the syrian rebels meanwhile the u.n. and russia agree on an international peace conference to tackle the deadly conflict . also this week a spy scandal rusher exposes the cia's chief in moscow on u.s. intelligence is caught red handed trying to recruit a russian agent. live from moscow this is our weekly news review with me carrie johnston. more than one hundred days and counting a hunger strike on a tourist guantanamo bay prison is showing no signs of ending prison officials admitted to r.t. that one hundred three prisoners are now refusing food the lawyers for the inmates say the number may be as high as one hundred thirty where many are being force fed through the nose an extremely painful procedure the detainees are seeking an end to their indefinite detention without charge him on the us president has repeatedly promised to close the

the a.p. was notified friday. the justice department had collected phone logs for 20 telephone lines used by more than 100 reporters and editors. prosecutors also subpoenaed and seized cell phone records of several a.p. journalists. the calls cover a two-month period: april and may, 2012. when the wire service was reporting a series of stories about an al qaeda affiliate in yemen. on may 7, 2012 the a.p. detailed a disrupted terror plot to attack a u.s. airliner using an upgraded underwear bomb. quote with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden. government officials complained that story and others about the al qaeda plot from yemen revealed classified information and compromised counterterrorism operations. today attorney general eric holder went even further. >> it put the american people at risk. that is not hyperbole. it put the american people at risk. and trying to determine who was responsible for that, i think, required very aggressive action. >> report