• Documents reveal that federal agents spied  on the phone records of his parents, who live on New York’s Staten  Island
• Reporters James Rosen and William  La  Jeunesse, producer Mike Levine were the subject of subpoenas but never notified  by the government
• Fox News says U.S. journalism ‘up until now  has always been a free press’
• An FBI agent swore out an affidavit claiming  that Rosen had broken the law, ‘at the very least, either as an aider, abetter  and/or co-conspirator’
• New allegations add fuel to the fire started  with a DOJ investigation into the Associated Press

By  David Martosko In Washington and Thomas Durante

PUBLISHED: 01:02 EST, 22 May  2013 |  UPDATED: 01:02  EST, 22 May 2013

Family ties: Fox News has reported that even James  Rosen’s parents were targeting during a probe seen as a violation of First  Amendment rights

The revelations that the Justice  Department  targeted the emails of a Fox News reporter have become even  more disturbing as  even his parents were targeted in the probe,  documents say.

It was  uncovered on Monday that the  network’s Washington, D.C. correspondent  James Rosen – and two other staffers –  had his phone records seized and  emails read by federal agents.

The DOJ’s actions have been  blasted as a monumental violation of the freedom of the press, but the  investigation went beyond the veteran journalist.

Citing federal documents on Tuesday, Fox News  host Bret Baier referred to  ‘seized phone records that relate to [Rosen’s]  parents’ home in Staten  Island.’

The Fox News  Channel is outraged over the  revelations that Rosen and fellow reporter  William La Jeunesse – along with  producer Mike Levine –  were targeted  by the U.S. Department of Justice in  criminal investigations related to  their attempts to obtain information from  government sources.

Rosen has become a First Amendment cause  celebre over his treatment by the Obama administration.

Rosen, according to affidavits filed by FBI  agents, was considered a possible criminal co-conspirator.

 

Fox News’s Shannon Bream (R) and Megyn Kelly (L) broke  the news Monday that the DOJ had targeted three of their journalist colleagues  in criminal investigations for seeking classified information from willing  government sources

The Washington Post reported on Monday  morning that Rosen was the subject of a Department of Justice probe in relation  to his reporting about North Korea’s likely reactions to new UN sanctions in  2009.

Federal investigators read his personal  emails, obtained his phone records, and tracked his comings and goings through  government buildings.

An FBI agent filed an affidavit in that case  claiming that he thought Rosen had broken the law, ‘at the very least, either as  an aider, abetter and/or co-conspirator.’

None of the three journalists targeted by the  Obama administration was notified that the government was spying on his records  and emails.

‘All three of our colleagues say they were  never contacted by the government,’ Fox News  Channel correspondent Shannon Bream reported on  Monday afternoon.

La Jeunesse and Levine were targeted in a  separate Department of Justice investigation into leaks related to Operation  Fast and Furious, a scandal-plagued DOJ program that sent illicit guns across  the Mexican border to drug cartels in the hope of tracing the guns’ path to the  narcotics gangs.

The federal government lost track of the  majority of approximately 2,000 firearms that were allowed to cross the southern  U.S. border. More than 300 deaths in Mexico, and the death of at least one U.S.  Border Patrol agent, were linked to those weapons.

La Jeunesse broke stories outlining  several  key elements of the Fast and Furious scandal.

Monday’s Inspector General report from the  DOJ directly quotes his emails, as well as some from Levine, the Fox News  producer.

‘What we don’t know at this point,’  Bream reported, ‘is if the sources within the Justice Department may have shared those  emails  with investigators, or if the Fox employees’ accounts were  directly accessed by  investigators. It’s simply a question we cannot  answer at this  point.’

 

Fox News Channel producer Mike Levine’s emails were read  by DOJ investigators, but his employer isn’t certain whether it was the result  of a subpoena, or of agents swapping information inside Main Justice

Fox News Channel released a pointed statement  from executive vice president of news  editorial  Michael Clemente.

‘We are outraged to learn today that  James  Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a  reporter,’ Clemente said. ‘In fact, it is downright  chilling.’

‘We will unequivocally defend his right to  operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free  press.’

The news broke as White House Press  Secretary Jay Carney was preparing to deliver his daily briefing to  reporters,  but with correspondents away from their television sets and  unaware of the  development, questions focused on the first incarnation  of the Obama  administration’s press freedom scandal, involving the  Associated  Press.

 

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney fended off  questions about the press freedom scandal on Monday, claiming President Obama  aims to balance the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with the need to  protect state secrets

Attorney General Eric Holder has denied  having any knowledge of a probe in his agency that saw the phone records of  approximately 20 AP employees turned over to federal investigators who sought to  determine who had leaked information about the CIA’s role in a foiled terror  plot in Yemen.

Holder claimed in a congressional hearing  last week that he had recused himself from the investigation since he himself  was interviewed as a possible suspect or witness.

Carney has denied that Obama was informed  about that probe, and said Monday that the president ‘is committed to the  press’s ability to pursue information and protecting the First  Amendment.

Obama is ‘also mindful,’ he added, ‘of secret  and classified information needing to stay secret and classified for national  security reasons

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