WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric Holder did not recuse himself from the 2010 search warrant for emails from a Fox News reporter's personal account, a Justice Department official said Monday evening.
DOJ regulations require the attorney general to approve charges against a journalist or the search warrant for journalist phone records, but that regulation does not appear to apply to journalist emails. The DOJ official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said no charges against Rosen were anticipated. Language used by an FBI agent requesting a search warrant made Rosen's reporting activities out to be part of a criminal conspiracy.
“To our knowledge, the Department of Justice has never prosecuted a reporter," the Justice Department official told The Huffington Post. "No reporter has ever been charged by the Department of Justice simply for publishing information obtained through an illegal leak of classified information by a government official. At this time, we do not anticipate bringing any additional charges in this matter.”
Holder, during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last week, said that targeting journalists had not "fared well in American history" and suggested there was a high bar for prosecutions. The focus, he said, "should be on those people who break their oath and put the American people at risk, not the reporters who gather the information.”
CORRECTION: This article has been edited to note that Rosen's emails were searched as a result of a search warrant, not a subpoena.
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