According to The Daily Beast, Attorney General Eric Holder felt “a creeping sense of personal remorse” after signing off on the search warrant that allowed the FBI to dig into Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s email and phone records.
But for Attorney General Eric Holder, the gravity of the situation didn’t fully sink in until Monday morning when he read the Post’s front-page story, sitting at his kitchen table. Quoting from the affidavit, the story detailed how agents had tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, perused his private emails, and traced the timing of his calls to the State Department security adviser suspected of leaking to him. Then the story, quoting the stark, clinical language of the affidavit, described Rosen as “at the very least … an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in the crime. Holder knew that Justice would be besieged by the twin leak probes; but, according to aides, he was also beginning to feel a creeping sense of personal remorse.
At issue: Holder views himself has a pragmatist with progressive views, and the investigation seemed to be at odds with that. Elsewhere, the New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza, who has been all over the Rosen case, looks at what happened when the DOJ claims it informed News Corp. about the warrant in 2010.