Holder backs AP phone records probe
He says ‘very serious leak’ put American lives at risk
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday strongly defended the criminal investigation into the leak of classified details about a successful U.S. undercover operation, calling it “within the top two or three most serious leaks” of government-protected information since he became a federal prosecutor more than 35 years ago.
The attorney general said he had recused himself earlier from overseeing the probe into who told the Associated Press about the disruption of a bombing plot in Yemen because the FBI had interviewed him about the matter a year ago. He said Deputy Attorney General James Cole was overseeing the probe, which is being run by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.
But Holder did not hesitate to defend a decision he said he did not make: to subpoena two months’ worth of telephone records from more than 20 AP telephone lines. He said American lives had been endangered by the disclosure.
“This was a very serious, a very serious leak, a very, very serious leak,” Holder said. “It put American lives at risk, and that is not hyperbole. It put the American people at risk.”
Prosecutors want to know who tipped off the AP about the secret CIA operation that foiled a plot to bomb an airplane bound for the U.S., an attack that was to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The story, published May 7, 2012, said al-Qaida operatives had devised a new type of bomb without metal, making it easier to evade airport security.
Cole wrote to Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of the AP, defending the decision to subpoena the office and personal phone records.
The subpoenas were “limited to a reasonable period of time and did not seek the content of any calls,” he said, and the records “cover only a portion” of two months last year.
“These records have been closely held and reviewed solely for the purpose of this ongoing criminal investigation,” Cole said. “The records have not been and will not be provided for use in any other investigations.”