Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement after press reports indicated that the Justice Department secretly gathered telephone records of Associated Press reporters and editors.
"The department's regulations state that prosecutors should obtain the Attorney General’s personal sign off when a free press is at stake, so the Obama administration needs to be transparent with its rationale for such a sweeping intrusion and detail whether the process outlined in regulation and the U.S. Attorney's manual were followed and justified for national security."