The Associated Press is crying foul after discovering the Department of Justice (DoJ) had secretly obtained two months of telephone records for more than 20 corporate and personal phone lines used by as many as 100 AP journalists. In a letter of protest to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, AP CEO Gary Pruitt said, “There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of the Associated Press and its reporters.” DoJ officials would not tell the AP why or how the records were obtained. The DoJ simply notified the AP via letter on Friday the records were in hand. The Obama administration denied knowledge of the investigation. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) pronounced himself “concerned” by the DoJ actions, as did Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and groups like the ACLU and American Society of News Editors.
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