{"id":18067,"date":"2013-05-30T16:30:59","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T20:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=18067"},"modified":"2013-05-30T16:30:59","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T20:30:59","slug":"carney-can%e2%80%99t-save-holder%e2%80%99s-misleading-testimony-to-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/18067\/carney-can%e2%80%99t-save-holder%e2%80%99s-misleading-testimony-to-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney Can\u2019t Save Holder\u2019s Misleading Testimony to Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday a reporter read Attorney General Eric Holder\u2019s recent congressional testimony to White House spokesman Jay Carney.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a question last week about prosecuting journalists as co-conspirators under the Espionage Act of 1917, Holder told a House committee: \u201cIn regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material \u2013 this is not something I\u2019ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it came to light soon after that Holder was, in fact, involved in potentially prosecuting a journalist for espionage \u2013 James Rosen of Fox News, <em>three years<\/em> before he made the statement above to Congress.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, in full spin mode and with a straight face, Carney said, \u201cClearly what the attorney general said is accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/302373-white-house-defends-holder-statements-to-congress\" target=\"_blank\">The Hill<\/a> summarizes Carney\u2019s position as, \u201cmedia reports indicate that no prosecution of Rosen is being contemplated, and that therefore Holder\u2019s statement regarding potential prosecution is correct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Carney\u2019s characterization changes the timeline. Holder said it\u2019s \u201cnot something I\u2019ve ever been involved in,\u201d meaning Holder was <em>never<\/em> involved in potentially prosecuting a journalist. That\u2019s clearly false. What Carney is trying to do by stressing the <em>current<\/em> reality that no prosecution is pending is to make it seem like Holder\u2019s failure to prosecute now renders his previous support irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p>Nice try, Jay, but it won\u2019t fly with Congress or the American people.<\/p>\n<p>As I wrote in <a href=\"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/index.php\/commentary\/54-state-of-affairs\/1861-congress-has-the-right-perhaps-the-duty-to-impeach-eric-holder\" target=\"_blank\">my column this week<\/a>, if Holder can\u2019t be trusted to tell the truth under oath \u2013 and his track record proves he can\u2019t \u2013 then he is unfit for the office he holds. If he won\u2019t step down voluntarily, then Congress will be under the duty to investigate and, if necessary, impeach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday a reporter read Attorney General Eric Holder\u2019s recent congressional testimony to White House spokesman Jay Carney. Responding to a question last week about prosecuting journalists as co-conspirators under the Espionage Act of 1917, Holder told a House committee: \u201cIn regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material \u2013 this is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,498,2463,3749,1823,116,44],"class_list":["post-18067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-congress","tag-eric-holder","tag-jay-carney","tag-journalism","tag-justice","tag-media","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18067"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18075,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18067\/revisions\/18075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}