Politics

Bret Baier: Justice Department targeted James Rosen’s parents as well

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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On Tuesday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel, host Bret Baier revealed that the intrusions into James Rosen’s privacy went beyond Rosen himself and also involved his parents.

Baier laid out the specifics of Rosen’s situation during the panel segment, first reported by The Washington Post earlier this week.

“The U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. said because of this case — it’s an open case — active prosecution, they’re limited in what they can share,” Baier said. “The government exhausted, they said, ‘All reasonable non-media alternatives for collecting this evidence before seeking court approval for a search warrant based on the investigation and all the facts known to date. No other individuals, including the reporter, have been charged since Mr. Kim was indicted nearly three years ago.’ We can report that James Rosen, to his knowledge, was never contacted by anyone in the administration.”

Panelist Kirsten Powers noted that breach of protocol, but also noted he had not been charged with a crime.

“Which they’re supposed to do which is normal operating procedure,” Powers said. “The fact that he hasn’t been charged — I’m sorry. They just went through his emails and his private Gmail and that’s OK, but they haven’t charged him with anything, so let’s move on?”

Powers then criticized the Obama administration on those grounds, noting how they would leak information if it improved their image. But Baier revealed that in addition to Rosen having his own phone records seized, the federal government had also seized Rosen’s parents’ phone records.

“You know, I just want to point out one more thing,” Baier said. “You know, we said the different numbers. We have the documents now, and the seized toll records also relate to James’ parents’ home in Staten Island.”

Daily Caller editor in chief Tucker Carlson responded by lashing out at the media for not reacting to these attacks on Fox News and added that Rosen might not be alone, based on what CBS News’ correspondent Sharyl Attkisson told a Philadelphia radio host about her own computer on Tuesday.

“It’s unbelievable,” Carlson said. “This began when the administration tried to weed Fox News out of the White House press pool. You had a politician determining what is and what is not a news organization, and by and large, the press stood still and allowed that to happen. By the way, Sharyl Attkisson, a terrific reporter at CBS, is reporting she believes her personal commuter was compromised. We don’t know by whom, but it does suggest this story may grow a lot bigger before it ends.”

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