In the matter of James Rosen

The latest reporting in the matter of Fox News Channel’s James Rosen indicates the Obama administration fought to keep the search warrant for Rosen’s private email account secret, arguing that the government might need to monitor the account for a lengthy period of time. Thank you, Ryan Lizza.

And one more thing. Despite Eric Holder’s protestations of ignorance regarding the Rosen matter, NBC reports that Holder himself authorized the warrant application. Hmmm. Does that mean he might not have been entirely forthcoming about the matter in his testimony to a House Committee on the matter? The White House has gone silent over the Memorial Day weekend.

Our observant reader with long experience in the criminal investigative division of the IRS has an interesting sidebar on the affidavit supporting the Rosen email search warrant:

I thought I’d point out another Great Moment in Government Competence, this one from Eric Holder and his Justice Department in the Rosen “scandal.” Take a look at the documents which were unsealed recently, particularly the Motion to Seal which was originally filed to protect the search warrants. That’s Exhibit B. The papers are all at New Yorker’s website, where Ryan Lizza wrote about it today.

Everything cruises along pretty smoothly until you get to this little gem on page 2: “The United States has considered alternatives less drastic than sealing and has found none that would suffice to protect the government’s legitimate interest in attempting to locate and prosecute those responsible for THE BOMBINGS.”

I added a little emphasis to highlight the most interesting part. So is Mr. Rosen involved in bombings? He sounds like a bad guy. Or did some idiot FBI agent or (more likely) AUSA recycle a motion from another case? It certainly would have reflected better on the author had he actually proof read his motion before he turned it in to the magistrate judge. Who obviously didn’t read it, either. And apparently the US Attorney and, if reports are to be believed, Eric Holder also didn’t read it closely enough to catch a pretty glaring error.

It’s a little thing, I know, though Mr. Rosen might not appreciate being linked, however incompetently, with “bombings,” but these are the same people who are asking to be trusted with investigation of the other scandals out there. It would be nice if one had some confidence in their ability to get the facts straight, especially in a federal court pleading.

I think it’s fair to say that these are men in a hurry. Mistakes, as they say, were made.

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