US Justice Department Seizes AP Phone Records

According to the Associated Press, the US Justice Department seized some of their phone records, from April and May of 2012.


Records for over twenty phone lines were taken, including multiple reporters and the press agency's switchboard.

The AP called the seizure a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" of freedom of the press.

AP Chief Executive Gary Pruitt said, "There can be no possible justification for such an overboard collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters".

In a press release, the US Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia said that they had been extremely "careful and deliberative" when taking the records.