now, he was the guy that signed the warrant, if you will, for gmails of jim rosen an so forth. the a.p., but rosen. how can he investigate his own doing or in this case misdoing? >> well, i think that's right. you add to that the disclosure of our confidential tax returns. we asked the department of justice for an investigation over a year ago is there who is we? >> this is the national organization for marriage that i chaired. the confidential tax returns were posted or disclosed to our political opponents, those are felonys. we asked the department of justice for an investigation over a year ago. they said, we're not going to do it. this is the organization being asked to investigate this latest scandal. >> right. tom, first amendment freedom of press is being busted here. okay. holder is bun of the busters. he's done this. no matter what he said, he signed the warrant for rosen. so why would you go after the journalists? why not go of the leaker or the spy who gave the journalist what the journalist does for a living, ie, information? >> i'm going to say this right up front.

investigations under this administration than any previous administration and the most recent case against jim rosen of fox news in which the justice department named him as is something or the administration threatened to do but only the justice department has done it. that last seems to have crossed a stort -- sort of trip wire for the president. he sort of told eric holder what the outcome of that investigation ought to be. >> except he empowered his attorney general to investigate himself, which is not always going to work very well. we're going to move on to another nagging policy problem -- targeting of the political sort, at the i.r.s. the official in charge of the mess took the fifth rather than testify before congress, then as placed on paid leave. but the uproar continued, and in the end, you could be forgiven for not knowing who to trust. with all the shifting accounts surrounding this, is government losing the credibility war, dan? >> well, i mean, gwen, there are a lot of angles from which you can look at this i.r.s. scandal, but that's clearly one of them. even before this we know that

i would want to know can you tell us is jim rosen -- was that the only one? >> no. >> what do you consider a co-conspirator. what is the standard because you can't actually forgive and move on until you know the full scope of what happened. >> he said he was a little bit sorry for the extent. >> do you agree? >> one of the things we have to remind here is eric holder who will have to appoint if they do have special prosecutors and that will raise a whole lot of questions. i assume he would recuse himself. there are other special prosecutors. the republicans are debating whether they should have it themselves. darrell issa thinks he can handle it. >> they would like to run the hearings themselves. >> eric holder is the last person. >> they have some things going on all at once. they need to just right write it all down. >> take a look at eric holder over the years. no strange to controversy. a short list swirling around the attorney general. pull that screen up any time now. holder the withholder. february 2009 calls the usa a nation of cowards. i'm quoting hi

or talk to jim rosen? that i thought went part in part, hand-in-hand with this approach? >> well, usually. but now you have the hypocrisy of the press who love to have off the record meetings, they die for off the record meetings with the president, saying we are above off the record meeting, we only want meetings on the record. what we need is new legislation that determines when and if ever you can go after journalists for publishing classified material. can you not leave it to the discretion of the toempbl. >> so you don't think he lied? >> i don't think he lied i think he should write a letter apologizing for what he said. because it turns out that he did have some contact with some aspect of the case, but i do not believe he sat there and said, i am now deliberately telling a lie. >> all right. you heard what will dershowitz said, do you buy it? >> no, i think he didn't lie, i think he was disingenuous. the splix horrible. one would have think he would sat down with fox news or whatever the case would be, this is what we think we are doing. off the record, you need t

that the justice department had to shop around for a judge to sign the warrant to surrender veil jim rosen. that story just broke today. they had to go to a third federal judge to do that. now that's nuts, considering that mr. holder said he didn't have anything to do with it. >> i'm not aware of this controversy, but that doesn't necessarily mean that eric holder signed off on going to three different judges. >> he actually signed the document, however, that allowed them to go after rosen. >> okay. i'm not sure what this means. i can't say, because i haven't seen the story. but look, i don't have any reason to think that eric holder is lying about this. i think there should be some sort of investigation that's going on right now. i don't think that they have any reason to cover this up. and if there is a cover-up, it will come and be revealed. but i think the republicans have a danger, a tendency to overreach on these stories. and if they do and they try to make this into another white water like they did in the 1990s, they will pay the consequences. >> just a week of hearings, for heaven

more controversy surrounding jeff rosen, representing lead attorney, jim sibley, voting to file a grievance with the county claiming the d.a. retaliated against sibley for speaking out against altered time sheets. this 46-page grievance comes a month after our investigative unit exposed d.a. rose zen to order time sheets to be altered to give free time off. after two decades at the d.a.'s office and 2 1/2 years at lead attorney, sibley has been demoted. come monday, he will be transferred to palo alto. sibley, who lives in santa cruz, has a 14-year-old son with autism. he says, moving to palo alto means he will spend 3 hours commuting to and from work thand will take time away from his family. he claims the move is to, quote, make him pay the price for telling the truth. >> the atmosphere within the d.a.'s office over the last two years has been essentially a culture of fear. you go with what the administration is planning or you are going to pay the price for it. >> labor relations will conduct an investigation into why exactly sibley was demoted and transferred. the district attorney says

rosen. the union representing lead attorney jim sibley voted to file a grievance with the county late last night claiming the d.a. retaliated against sibley for speaking out about altered time sheets. the 46-page grievance comes a month after our investigative unit exposed d.a. rosen, ordered time sheets be altered to be given free time off. sibley says he sent letters to rosen asking not to receive the time off but he got it anyway. now after two decades at the d.a.'s office and 2 1/2 years as a lead attorney, sibley has been demoted and come monday will be transferred to palo alto. sibley who lives in santa cruz has a 14-year-old son with autism. he says moving to palo alto means he will spend three hours commuting to and from work and that will take time away from his family. he claims the move is to, quote, make him pay the price for telling the truth. >> the atmosphere within the d.a.'s office over the last two years has been essentially a culture of fear. you either go with what the administration is planning or you're going to pay the price for it. >> labor relations will now conduct an i

investigation whether he lied to congress about the case involving a leak in 2009 to james rosen of fox news. congressman jimleading the probe. here he is with our own andrea mitchell. take a listen to him. >> either holder did sign off on an allocation that rosen violated the espionage act, or he didn't know that that was in the affidavit that was filed in the court. and he doesn't know what's going on in his own department. either case, he ought to resign and, as he's lost trust of congress and the trust of the american people. >> that's somewhat presumption. to a lot of people in washington, mr. sensenbrenner is saying because he was labored a co-conspirator, therefore he was being prosecuted. that seems logical, but it's not strictly true, is it? >> absolutely not. you can be a co-conspirator without being a target of investigation. it amazing me -- >> you just diluted the man in one sentence, professor. you've just stripped him bare. his whole thesis for 15 minutes was that. you took one second. >> you know, this is what we do in georgetown. >> clearly. >> the reality is this. the reality is this. is th

rosen didn't name a source and did not leak any information: did was stephan kim jim state department employee who has been charged with a national security crime. he has pleaded not guilty. the rosen in the associated press situation both come back to attorney general holder. right now he is just holding on by his finger tips. and that's the memo. now for the top story tonight. the aforementioned shootout between hume and williams over mr. holder for stuff from washington juan williams. holder can't see everything, juan? that was lame. come on. even you, can't see everything? this is big, juan. when guy comes and says i'm going to tap -- not tap, we're going to look at the phone records of a fox news correspondent, you look at everything, juan. come on. >> let me just tell you, what's lame here and i think you got it right in the talking points memo, bill, is people who don't realize this is about national security. that al qaeda has no right in the a.p. case to know that we have a double agent operating within their counsel in yemen, trying to bomb a u.s. plane. and sim harley in th

rosen. our national political correspondent jim acosta is over at the white house getting new information. what is the latest? >> well, wolf, as you know the justice department has been working to lower the temperature, lower the heat in this james rosen matter. one thing that the justice department did confirm is that attorney general eric holder will be meeting with bureau chiefs for the various news organizations here in washington over the coming days to talk about some of the issues. something else that came up earlier this afternoon. the justice department is telling us here at cnn, wolf, that it showed a fox news notification according to the justice department of this james rosen investigation nearly three years ago. to back that up, earlier this afternoon justice and law enforcement producer carol crowdy was shown by a law enforcement official documents indicating as much of this notification to the parent company of fox news, news corporation happened three years ago and also want to show you the statement that the justice department is passing along to us, wolf. here it is. it sa

jim. i want to get your reaction to this. they say eric holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified fox news reporter james rosen as a possible co-conspirator in violation of the espionage act and authorized seizure of his private e-mails back in 2010. in may of this year, before the house judiciary committee, eric holder said this, with regard to the potential prosecution of the press, for the disclosure of material that is not something i've ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy. >> as karl roving, writing for fox news opinion on friday, said it would appear that holder misled the congress. others can decide what the misleading works out to in terms of implications but he said over and over again i recused myself. he couldn't find his recusal document. the rare lawyer that doesn't write things down and keep records. >> a lot of press questions that should be asked and need to be answered. next on "news watch" the liberal media spin on the irs scandal. >> employees in this unit targeted groups with names containing tea party, patriot, and other terms associated with conservatives.

jon: jim is an intellectual guy and he can process this stuff faster than the rest of us. i read in "the washington post" that our colleague james rosenmail snooped at by federal agents that is a little creepy. >> it is creepy. ryan lizza a reporter for the new yorker magazine sent out a tweet this morning saying that this department of justice investigation on rozen makes all the other scandals look like quote, giant nothing burgers, unquote. the idea being here this is really a quantum leap, even for this administration. as green walled points out the obama administration has investigated and prosecute erred morprosecuted more leakers than all other presidents put together. rozen is a leaky, a recipient of leaks and now they are trying to go after him too. we are not even done yet. who knows what tomorrow's' news will bring. >> 50 more requests are denied under obama than bush. as we say in the news business this is having a chilling effect on news gathering. jon: that is the question. i mean does all of this scouring for information about reporters and their sources, what is the affect on journalism in this country? what do you thi