in washington and a day where we saw sort of a split screen of press conferences from the department of justice and from the white house. start over at the department of justice, where the attorney general made some news in talking about this irs scandal. the question there, whether the irs improperly or now potentially illegally used political criteria to go after certain groups. take a listen to the attorney general. >> i have ordered an investigation to be begun. the fbi is coordinating with the justice department to see if any laws were broken in connection with those matters related to the irs. those were, i think, as everyone can agree, if not criminal, they were certainly outrageous and unacceptable. but we are examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations. >> and just as the department of justice is doing some examination and investigation,

this is procedure that well understood in the department of justice. i did it myself. you have a formal recuse al record so other officials in the department understand you are not to be involved in any aspect of that case directly or indirectly. so the idea that he just forgot to do it is simply not believable. >> eric: he accused himself with the a.p. and recused himself with the fox news matter and james rosen? >> that is why i think the whole administration argument that they have prosecuted twice as many leak investigations, national security leak investigations as all prior administrations put together really deserves scrutiny here. it needs to be somebody who is reporting to the president, not an independent counsel, that is an institution that brings more problems than it solves but somebody in the justice department, with the authority from the president to look what is happening. ultimately it is the president who is responsible. constitution says the executive power shall be vested in the president of the united states. you want to sit behind the big desk, yo

the department of justice. no way you can defend the department of justice going after the media in their zeal to track down yet another leaker from the obama administration. get back to your calls and your comments on that. your calls at 866-55-press. how about this story? just a quick look at identity theft, again. this will from the state of georgia. the point i am making is that this happens all over the country all the time. down in georgia, they thought that at a college down there, they thought they had been under attack from multiple hackers but it turns out it was one former student who took social security numbers, dates of birth and other personal information from computer servers belonging to more than 8500 people. you've got to be protected against identity theft. i am with lifelock ultimate, the most comprehensive id theft protection ever. of course, life lock services can't protect you or your bank accounts if you are not a member. visit lifelock.com online or call and mention press10 for 10% off

and that the investigators in the department of justice handle. there is, i believe, when it comes to these kinds of things, a decisionmaking process, but i would refer you to the department of justice who actually made the decision has been reported base our information only comes from press reports on this. >> if that turns out to be the attorney general or whoever it turns out to be, will the president have confidence in that person? >> the president has confidence in the attorney general. he has confidence in his team over at the department of justice. i think that, again, i'm not going to comment on specifics of the investigation here. i think that it is important to note that, as i said earlier, that there is a balance here that has to be struck between our national security interests and the need to prevent classified information from leaking, classified information that can endanger americans and harm our national security on the one hand and the president's firm commitment to the need for reporters to be able to, in an unfettered way, purs

holder said he has ordered an investigation to be begun by the fbi and the department of justice into this irs situation, a situation that he called outrageous and unacceptable. he said he's not clear whether any laws were broken will, but the department of justice are investigating to see what is happening there. haz all about whether or not the irs improperly or potentially now legally subject patriot tea party groups to a higher level of scrutiny when they submitted applications to tax-empty status. he also talked about this other situation, saying that he recused himself -- he testified, rather, back in june of 2012, now interviewed in connection with the situation, and the

controversy and even the department of justice secret investigation on a.p. reporters there is no shortage of scandals coming out of washington d.c. so to talk about in greater detail what a.p. top executives call a massive and unprecedented intrusion into how news organizations conduct business i was joined earlier by marcy wheeler she's an investigative reporter at mt weil dot net and she actually began talking about the d.o.j. and that the fact that this d.o.j. has taken records from journalists and why this case is so unusual. the thing that's most unusual about this is when the o.j. goes after reporters or reporters records they subpoena reported they give notice and in this case they didn't do it in fact we still don't know when d.o.j. went and got these records no one and all of the blix today have confessed that and so normally the a.p. would have had an opportunity to challenge this subpoena and argue for example that it was too broad which it probably wasn't argue that the public service interest of what they reported was not enough to merit turning

and information content used to emerge regarding the department of justice keeping tabs on journalist and just who approved of those investigations into who journalists communicate with via phone and email well more than three weeks ago news broke that the department of justice seized phone records of the associated press reporters to find out who had leaked national security information then it came to light that fox white house correspondent james rosen was facing charges as a coconspirator under the espionage act for obtaining classified information from a state department source back in two thousand and nine president obama said that

>> i have confidence in the department of justice, and they may make a decision that we can't move forward here, but if the department makes decisions contrary to the department of justice that visit with career prosecutors stepping forward with these becoming politicized at the department of justice. we have to be very careful making the decision. neil: someone always sings. normally deals are off if you make them sing. but that is the next step. if that is the case, how soon? >> that is hard to predict frankly. it will depend upon what evidence ttey are able to communicate the case we can present to someone in terms of they can put pressure on the individual and that individual is willing to come forward for a deal that may be critical prosecuting somebody for wrongdoing. neil: very good seeing you again. thank you. what do you do when irs agents get out of hand? >> let's find out what happened here. either one is bad, we need to know the answer to that. thank you orville and wilbur... ...a. neil and buzz: for teachi us that you can't create the future... by clinging to t past. and with

i think that the question is whether or not the department of justice has overreacted here, has gone yond its constitutional rights. as a matter of fact, some people are saying that maybe this isn't so bad because at least they haven't been water boarder journalists so far. >> not yet, right? all right. bob franken in washington, thanks so much for that. >> thank you. >>> this next story is especially gut wrenching for me as a mom. a 14-month-old girl is recovering after her stroller rolled toward the track and toppled on to the outer rail at a philly train station. the bomb with the baby jumps on to the tracks, lifts her back on to the platform. thankfully the child suffered only a cut on her forehead and is expected to be okay. we'll be right back. ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions... in everything from the best experiences below... to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting histo

i think the irs involvement with the department of justice and issues are that current. ests the department of justice needs to give this to someone outside outside of their process, a narrow mandate, try to restore whatever it had the confidence in the irs. >> john eastman, i want to ask you the same questions. i want to observe. so far these irs people either stonewall or flat out lie or now they're taking the fifth amendment. i don't see how congress with break through that unless there is an independent special counsel u counsel. >> the independents is a bit more of a myth than we'd like to believe. we can get a special council. he will be appointed by the attorney justice and is answerable to the attorney general of the united states. this controversy is implicating trust in the department of justice, itself, perhaps the white house. i think you need somebody even more independent than that. our constitution sets up congress to be the investigator in such things. i'd like to see the appointment of a special select committee where instead of individual members of cong

they have taken a lot of heat here for sort of pushing the line that the department of justice, the department of justice talking points on this a.p. scandal? >> yeah, it's not just media matters, you had politico that launched out, president obama is not really watching the justice department that closely because president bush watched his justice department too closely and it was politicized. so president obama attitude is the correct way. i think the talking point that the white house has been pushing not only media matters picks it up but politico picks it up. the leak had occurred at associated press and they tried to find out who leak. in the bush administration, president bush himself called the "new york times" to say, let's hold back on these stories if you are going to give away our sources. "new york times" said no, and they went forward anyway. i think the government has the right, but they need to be able to put some pressure on the news organizations to see if they will comply first. >> jon: should the media be making the point that eric holder recuses himself in this case? it do

and about the department of justice and "associated press." t sometimes there are other things going on. there are other important issues in the news and one thing that almost got lost this week is a second officer of the military who had the job of cracking down on sexual assaults and sexual abuse has been, himself now found guilty or at least charged with sexual abuse. what the hell is going on? can we trust the military to police itself and correct this problem? congresswoman jackie speier from california has been out in front on this issue. more than anybody, as much as anybody else i should say. >> for two years. >> bill: for two years. talked to us off been it. congresswoman, always great to see you. >> great to see you. >> bill: you and i talked about this the last time you were on, the air force guy found in a parking lot accosting a woman, assaulting a woman in arlington, virginia. what's the latest? >> so, the latest appears to be a case where a sexual assault prevention and response officer they call them sarp officer was soliciting

in the department of justice handle. there is, i believe when it comes to these kinds of things, a decision-making process. but i would refer you to the department of justice for who actually made the decision that's been reported. because again, our information comes only from press reports on this. >> if that turns out to be the attorney general or whoever it turns out to be, will the president have confidence in that person? >> the president has confidence in the attorney general. he has confidence in his team over at the department of justice. i think that again i'm not going to comment on the specifics of an investigation here. i think it is important to note that i've said earlier, that there is a balance here that has to be struck between our national security interests and our need to prevent classified from leaking, classified information that can endanger americans and harm our national security. on the one hand, and the president's firm commitment to the need for reporters to be able to in an unfettered way, pu

, i don't minimize the sensitivity of the invest gigatn and need to get the facts, but the department of justice also owes the american people the facts that justified this very apparently sweeping subpoena, which is troubling because of its potential chilling effect on news gathering as well as privacy, so the department of justice has to be more forthcoming with facts. has to launch a credible inquiry whether it's called an investigation or not, that will verify whether its own guidelines were followed and whether any other laws may be im implicated. as you talk about the sweeping action that was taken by the department of justice, the deputy attorney general, james m. cole, said the fbi subpoenaed records after they conducted more than 550 interviews and reviewed tens of thousands of documents. explain to us because eric holder is sayi ining this was sa serious, serious leak. we know about the secret subpoenas and what was done, but we don't have a whistleblower, any information about where this was coming from. do you know anything revealed by their investigation that would lead them in the

department of justice handle. i believe when it comes to these kinds of things, a decision-making process, but i would refer you to the department of justice who actually made the decision that has been reported. our information only coming from press reports on this. >> if it turns out to be the attorney general or whoever it turns out to be, will the president have confidence in that person? >> the president has confidence in the attorney general. he has confidence n of his team over the department of justice. i think that -- again, i'm not going to comment on specifics. i think it's important to note as i said earlier, there is a balance that has to be struck between other national security interests and needs to prevent classified information from leaking, classified information that can endanger americans and harm our national security and the president's firm commitment for reporters to pursue investigative journalism. >> and at the same time subpoena phone records? >> i can't comment on specific reports that

has with what happened here that were spelled out in its letter to the department of justice. massive nature of what was done. there were 20 phone lines in a number of bureaus that involved phones that probably 100 or so reporters had access to. it got all of their outgoing calls for a two month period on everything they dealt with. so it really was giving the government a road map into how the a.p. goes about their business, who it was talking to, what stories they were following. that's the sort of information the government has no right to have. that was number one. and number two, the guidelines put in place in the 1970s that the press is supposed to be given advance notice when the government needs information critical to an criminal investigation and allowed to negotiate and allowed to negotiate to protect their own interests. that didn't happen here. >> the statement today, may 14th, from gary pruitt, last paragraph where he said the white house said, this is a year ago, there was no credible threated american people made of 2012. the a.p. story they had written then sug

department. does the president approve of that kind of action by the justice department against a reporter? to what the president said in response to a question about another matter along these lines and that is that he is a strong defender of the first amendment and firm believer in the need for the press to be able to conduct investigative reporting and facilitate a free flow of information. he is also as a citizen and as commander in chief insistent that we protect our secrets, that we protect classified information and that leaks that we take very seriously the leaks of classified information because leaks can endanger the lives of men and women in uniform and other americans serving overseas for our cup. >> this one, too? that's the story we heard last week to justify the a.p. story. now the same explanation this week from jay carney. he was reacting there on it a question from john karl of abc news. telling a federal judge in order to get a search warrant that james was part of a criminal conspiracy, they had to say that because they wanted to go into court without telling us, without

of the very same banks that were bailed out by taxpayer funds. but there are neither bailouts nor justice for these families the acts of disobedience outside the department of justice speaks volumes but will it be loud enough to be heard by those who can make changes behind closed doors in washington just you know under our. thanks to a stand now in response to close doors i now to talk about revolving doors so many judd gregg he was just named c.e.o. of the securities industry and financial markets association or systema which is a lot wall street lobbying powerhouse so it might represent over six hundred fifty securities firms banks and asset managers and they pay their executives a multimillion dollar salaries they've been described as a very important jury trade group for a lot of very wealthy firms so explain how we got here let's take a step back and look at his past who wrote balding door. judd gregg has a strong background in politics he started his career in the u.s. house of representatives where he served from one thousand nine hundred eighty eight to one nine hundred eighty seven he then ran for governor of new hampshire and held that seat fo

the department of justice admit ted it secretly seize phone record from the "associated press," some om permanent phone, it admits the records reveal everybody the journalists had been calling over a period of two months. so they have all the contacts, all the communications of the people entrusted by the constitution to keep watch over them. isn't that interesting. the justice department did not tell the "associated press" why it was keeping tabs on reporters etch also got no answers from the white house press secretary today, former reporter himself. >> from my background i understand them well. but in this situation, where the department appears to be conducting a criminal investigation it would be wholly inappropriate for me to have answers to those questions. don't have them and i have to rev you to the department of justice. >> reports got their chance to district their questions to the attorney general himself. eric holder was holding a news conference across town on medicare fraud, when this story quick live caught the spotlight. it's the first of three big stories today, and

department. does the president approve of that kind of action by the justice department against a reporter? >> i will refer you to what the president said in response to a question about another matter along these lines and that is that he is a strong defender of the first amendment. and a firm believer of the need for the press to be able to conduct investigative reporting and facilitate a free flow of information. >> new information is coming out about the case involving james rosen and because the legal filing made in the case by the u.s. attorney's office what we found is they weren't only going after records for him personally but because we have the area code and exchanges several important fox lines and lines that feed into the white house and several reporters and producers cell phones as well. >> greta: and we spoke with the lawyer representing the associated press in this case. david schulz. >> what provoked the government to finally tell the ap it had seized the records? >> the government told ap that it had seized the records because it is required to do so under the department o

(laughter) so that's what we figured out to do with the department of justice, tax fraud. hay justice department, what outside experts told you about how much damage prosecuting these big banks would do. >> the justice department has not received any material information from outside experts when making prosecutorial decisions in cases involving large financial institutions. >> first of all -- (laughter). (cheers and applause) -- i am sorry that you had to leave your prom to come to do this. (laughter) but second of all, so they didn't even get information about what two big to jail even means? too big to jail was really too hard to know? i find it hard to believe that not one person went to prison for their role in the whole financial crisis. isn't there anybody? just one guy? >> charlie engel went to prison for his role in the financial crisis. >> jon: what is with the (bleep)ing bow tie? (laughter) i mean, thank you. who is charlie engel? what is he some wall street wheeler dealer big-time banker? >> he didn't work here on wall street. he was not a big-time banker. he wa

department of justice of trying to find out who the leakers are because as you well now there's been a scandal with the d.o.j. . secretly uptake into the phone records from associate press journalists and also obtained a warrant to search the e-mail account of a fox news reporter so do you defend the u.s. government in trying to find out who the leakers are i think it is there's two things one. we've got six prosecutions of leakers three in all is true and states before them. everyone leaks and washing with everyone's got access to massive security information i think what the obama ought to do is dial it back he's dob dot a back on drones six is too many though to be some discretion because once you start getting everybody some of these cases blow up in your face that's the first question and then the second question is how you go about it ok i don't think when the government is concerned about the behavior of its own employees to take the press and throw the press into the middle of it which is what they have done in what we call rosen gate rosen is the reporter for fox new loser w

perez to produce all of his personal e-mail to guarding official department of justice business. on may 14, the department gave house oversight committee staff the opportunity to review the date and other e-mails. however, the text of e-mails was redacted. and the subject line. producing depleted redacted e-mails can't be considered responsive. the department of justice inspector general recently published a detailed report that discussed problems in the voting rights section. it talked about a politically charged atmosphere and polarization. .. members nominated and considered by the senate within a reasonable period of time. the senate has a duty of advice and consent and we would not be fulfilling our constitutional duties if we rush to vote on mr. perez. the president knew when he appointed mr. perez that congress was investigating his involvement in to brokering the quid pro quo deal in st. paul, minn.. one other thing, in terms of whether there has been delay, i would include when the record, if i may, an article from the washington post of march 18th, six seven weeks ago, a

second term seems to be plagued with scandal after scandal guantanamo bay hunger strike of the justice department's tracking of those a.p. phone records things just aren't looking good but look deeper into those scandals concerns over the save the in nutrition of the nation's food contend used to grow no cure food movement takes its first step will the child investigates its own schools bad food assertions a look at the power of the people's food coming up. the words of the koch brothers buying the tribune company have been met with protests by unions and legislative leaders a potential buyout would include the chicago tribune and the los angeles times fueling fears of a buyout would drastically change the news coverage in favor of one political leaning or more of these protests in the streets of los angeles later in the show. well it's wednesday may fifteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how well you're watching r t and on monday the associated press the nails the department of justice secretly obtain telephone records of its reporters and editors during a two month period the a.p. c.e.

now when you have the department of justice using bully tactics to go after sources, that, that feels like less of an obligation when someone is bullying you like this. i don't see the department of justice getting anything good out of this. melissa: no. harvey, who is ultimately responsible do you think, and do you think heads roll? let's start with the ap scandal. >> i am very troubled about this because because if there have been improper leaks or things like that, there may be a governmental interest but when the press is involved, government has an obligation to be respectful of the first amendment rights that the press has. that's not what happened here and what was done was done in secrecy, without advance warning. it appears that nobody can explain exactly what was going on or why. and this is si unacceptable. i think this is an administration problem, and definitely an eric holder problem. melissa: jack, that was the first question at the press conference yesterday was, if you look at all the scandals and how they are laid out, whether it is benghazi, you know the administrat

back here in the capital news that the department of justice has been spying on yet another reporter other leak investigation. this one james rosen of fox news. the department of justice also seizing his personal e-mails and labeling him as a criminal co-conspirator just for trying to do his job. we wouldn't tolerate that kind of activity on the part of george w. bush and dick cheney. we should not tolerate it on the part of barack obama either. finally, the white house admitted yesterday that they found out about the i.r.s. probe on april 24. didn't tell the president until may 10. why not? all of that on current tv. going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. (vo) current

the department of justice indicts and prosecutes violations of this statute all the time but they never do for this. never. why? it appears that there is a bad agreement between the department of justice and the internal revenue service at the department of justice -- that the department of justice won't prosecute false statements if they're made on this form unless the case has been referred to them by the i.r.s. so that's really scandal two right there. no matter how flagrant the false statement, no matter how great the discrepancy between the statements filed at the i.r.s. under oath and the statements also filed at the federal and state election agencies, no matter how baldly -- boldly the agency in practice on how it engages in political tivity, th, the department never makes a referral to the department of justice. 32 flagrantly false statements and as far as anyone knows, not one referral to the department of justice as a false statement. it is a mockery of the law and it is a mockery of the truth. there's an easy solution. the department of justice prosecutes these false stateme

neither the ap nor the justice department is confirming why the records were taken, fox news was told it is part of a justice department investigation into the alleged disclosure of classified information. associated press report last may on a thwarted plot by al qaeda in yemen to use an improvised explosive device similar to what the underwear bomber used to attack u.s. interests. late today a statement from the chairman of the senate judiciary committee that reads in part, quote, the burden is always on the government when they go after private information especially information regarding the press or confidential sources. i want to know more about this case but on the face of it i am concerned that the government may not have met that burden. i'm very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government's explanation. so it is clear from these statements that this is clearly a bipartisan issue, martha. martha: senator leahy is not alone. he makes a good point. we don't know yet, we know what ap is saying but we don't really know what the justice department's response to all of this is y

of effort. >> the justice department failed. they have not done what needed to be done. they didn't ever try to bring together one coherent narrative, laying out the entirety of the story, against one of the major players and demand sanctions that are meaningful. that to me is what has been fundamentally lacking. >> narrator: the story of how the big banks amassed enormous fortunes packaging home loans into securities and selling them to investors all over the world began, of course, on the ground with mortgage originators. >> what my econ i prof taught us was business goes in cycles. my name is michael winston. i worked for countrywide financial corporation from 2005 till 2008. they said their goal was world-class. goldman sachs on the pacific. and they wanted me to realize their vision. see now if you can reach up, with both fists... >> narrator: michael winston once lived inside the bubble at mortgage originator countrywide. at first, winston was impressed by ceo angelo mozilo and how he had turned countrywide into america's number one mortgage company. >> how ya doin'

department of justice handle when it comes to these things a decision-making process. but i would refer you to the department of justice for who actually made the decision that's been reported because it can our information comes only from press reports. >> even if it turns out to be the attorney general or whoever, will the president have confidence that person quite >> the president has confidence in the attorney general and his team at the department of justice. again, i am not going to comment on specifics of the investigation. it's to note that there is a balance here that has to be struck between our national security interest in the need to provide classified information from leaking, classified information that can endanger american and harm our national security. the reporters be able to in an unfettered way pursue investigative journalists. and at the same time the phone records. the president does believe that balance should be sought and can be found. and it's a balance and therefore we need to work out. he seemed from the past that he believed action should

now, we can -- or the justice department has the lawful authority by way of subpoena power to obtain those records. is that correct? >> the justice department does have that power, yes. >> so it's legal for the justice department to obtain that information but it certainly could cast a cool breeze over the first amendment rights of freedom of the speech and freedom of the press. and that's why we have some special rules with respect to the issuance of subpoenas by law enforcement to obtain information from media sources. that's correct, isn't it? >> yeah. i mean, again, without getting the case isn't about the a.p., it's about the people that leaked. be that as it may, there's a recognition within the justice department that in dealing with interacting with the press, that you're dealing with a special entity in that there have to be special rules about how that interaction occurs. >> and those rules a b of regulations. they're not by way of legislation. correct? >> that's correct. to determine whether or not we want to turn those guidelines and regulations into law. and now, you made

it's not a scandal of big government either it's merely the latest disturbing action taken by an overzealous justice department that places a higher priority in cracking down on whistleblowers and truth tellers than on bank stores and war criminals you see it doesn't matter the size of the government if it's the justice department is misguided well then there's going to be big problems but it shouldn't surprise us that conservatives are exploiting these stories to push for a libertarian paradise of you know zero government. the point is we shouldn't listen to that democratic government has been and will continue to be the best thing working people have to balance the influence of organized wealth and corporate power in fact we probably need a government to be bigger and that is the subject of tonight's daily take this past tuesday fellow by the name of brandon from mentor ohio called into my radio show and asked me how big government should be he asked me what the liberal end goal is as far as the size of government and while i answered it when he called on take a little more time to answer that question right

he also, of course, recognizes the need for the justice department to investigate alleged criminal activity without undue influence. as i said yesterday in my statement, other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the justice department to seek phone records of the associated press. >> rachel is deputy managing editor for politico. michael crowley is senior correspondent for "time" magazine. rachel, what was -- what is the department of justice, fbi looking for in all those phone records of the associated press? >> chris, thanks so much for having me. they are trying to find out who the leakers were. remember, this is a leak investigation. and, remember, this came up at the height of the presidential election. the republicans were crying foul in a major way, saying that the obama administration was playing politics with national security. now you see this all unfolding and reporters, of course, worried that this will have a chilling effect on our news gathering abilities. >> well, this is strange, because michael, here you have what looks to be an investigation to find

classified information now executives from the associated press and members of congress are taking shots at the justice department or to correspondent liz wall has more. it's being called an unprecedented government intrusion the justice department secretly collected two months of telephone records from the associated press and its reporters. 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 america

attorney generals now failed efforts to make peace with the media who are outraged over the department of justice'seavy-handed seizure of journalists stone and e-mail records. meanwhile, a new poll suggests extending majority of americans are not ready to let the obama administration off the hook for the irs scandal. according to surveys 76 percent of voters now think an independent special prosecutor should investigate the irs targeting of conservative groups. among many troubling revelations regarding the era scandal, public records show former irs chief visited the white house at least 159 times during the president's first term. his predecessor, by comparison, visited the bush white house just a handful of times. there are new reports that the irs official at the center of the scandal has a disturbing history of party conservatives, particularly when she headed enforcement at the federal election commission. back in the late 1990's she allegedly told the republican senate candidates in illinois, promise me you will never run for office again and we will drop this case. still has not been fired,

let's talk about the department of justice first. ers of congress already weighing in. >> reporter: a statement has been released saying the first amendment is first for a reason, that the obama administration is going after reporters' phone records they better have a damned good explanation. doesn't get more terse than that. republicans are unhappy, democrats are not happy as well from the most liberal to the most conservative. what the president of the associated press is saying that over a two-month period, 20 phone lines in new york, connecticut, washington, even the press room here in the capital, in the house of representatives, they seized records from all of those areas and it was done without telling the a.p. journalists beforehand. apparently some had their home phones and cell phone records taken, seized by the justice department. now, what the a.p.'s president is saying is that what they took provides what he called a road map to the a.p.'s news gathering operations, road map and information that the government simply has