WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder personally signed off on the warrant that allowed the Justice Department to search Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal email, NBC News’ Michael Isikoff reported Thursday.

The report places Holder at the center of one of the most controversial clashes between the press and the government in recent memory. The warrant he approved named Rosen as a “co-conspirator” in a leak investigation, causing many to warn that the Justice Department was potentially criminalizing journalism. The warrant also approved the tracking of Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, as well as his communications with his source, Stephen Kim. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – REPORT 1 – Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s director of exempt organizations, has been placed on administrative leave, according to a source in the agency’s Cincinnati office.

Lerner on Thursday afternoon sent an e-mail to employees in the exempt organizations division she oversees stating, “Due to the events of recent days, I am on administrative leave starting today. An announcement will be made shortly informing you who will be acting while I am on administrative leave. I know all of you will continue to support EO’s mission during these difficult times.” She concluded, “I thank you for all your hard work and dedication,” adding, “The work you do is important.”  (LINK)

(more…)

First they came for Andrew Breitbart, and the legacy media did not care because they did not like Breitbart….  Then they came for Fox News, and the legacy media did not care because they do not like Fox;  Then they came for the Associated Press, and some inside the legacy media began to twitch……  Then they came for James Rosen…. and again, more twitching.  Now they come for CBS and Sharyl Attkisson…..  Soon the regime will have no-one left to expose their corruption.

WASHINGTON DC – CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson said on Tuesday that her personal and work computers have been “compromised” for over two years.

Attkisson told a local Philadelphia radio station that she has been working with investigators to discover the source of the activity.

“There has been an issue in my house and there has been an issue with my computers that’s gone on for quite a long time that we’re looking into,” she said. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said embattled IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights and will be hauled back to appear before his panel again.

The California Republican said Lerner’s Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination was voided when she gave an opening statement this morning denying any wrongdoing and professing pride in her government service. (more…)

Ohio Rep Jim Jordan asks the Obvious:

(more…)

Something us up with the way Daryl Issa played out the appearance with IRS Director Lois Lerner.  Why didn’t he allow the committee to ask questions and force her to repeatedly refuse to answer?   Was it a matter of political maneuvering whereby the Democrats could not use their portion of the Q&A session to make pontificating statements?   Hmmmm….

Roger L Simon @PJMedia has a column out which essentially predicts a new set of whistleblowers who will soon present to congress.

[…] According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in two areas — what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi and the pressure put on General Carter Ham, then in command of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and therefore responsible for Libya, not to act to protect jeopardized U.S. personnel. (more…)

We knew this specific *cough* “investigation” was going to encompass much more than just Rosen’s communications.   Now surfacing his parents home phone records were targeted along with phones of Senior executives with Fox News, White House Fox reporters and State Department reporters phone lines. 

In the subpoena demand presented before a judge, which the DOJ is now hiding behind, the DOJ asserts that James Rosen has engaged in Criminal Conspiracy against national security.   Unreal. 

WASHINGTON DC – The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, on October 13, 2011. (more…)

While you were sleeping, or otherwise distracted by the shiny things dispatched by Scandalpalooza,  the usurpation continues.

WASHINGTON DC – After three long weeks of hearings and debates, spectators burst out into screams and applause Tuesday night after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an immigration bill that would be the biggest overhaul to the nation’s immigration laws in a generation.

The bill was produced by a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight. With four of those members on the committee, the bill survived more than 200 proposed amendments over five lengthy hearings.

Left intact was the core of the bill, which will allow the nation’s 11 million unauthorized immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship, add significant investments in border security and fundamentally alter the legal immigration system of the future. (more…)

WASHINGTON – A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening – or why she didn’t reveal it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor 3rd.

Lerner was [is] scheduled to appear before the House Oversight committee Wednesday. (more…)