The U.S. Justice Department has seized without notice comprehensive phone records for reporters and editors at the Associated Press, prompting the news agency to protest Monday directly to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, according to a USAToday story.
"I am writing to object in the strongest possible terms to a massive and unprecedented intrusion by the Department of Justice into the newsgathering activities of The Associated Press," wrote AP CEO Gary Pruitt, in a letter to Holder.
The Justice Department didn't explain why the records were subpoenaed, saying only in a statement that they were needed for investigation of an unspecified criminal matter. The statement said media organizations are notified in advance of such subpoenas "unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation."
The phone records date to April and May of 2012. The AP reported that they may have been collected for an investigation of a leak to the AP of information used in a May 7, 2012, story about a foiled terror plot, including details of a CIA operation in Yemen.
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