Reuters  Published time: May 14, 2013 16:55

The White House has denied having any priorknowledge of the Justice Department’s criminal probe of the Associated Press,but lawmakers appalled by the revelation are nonetheless lashing out at UnitedStates President Barack Obama.

Just hours after the AP reported on Mondaythat the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone recordsof reporters and editors employed by the news agency, White House PressSecretary Jay Carney said, “Other than press reports, we have no knowledge ofany attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP.”

"We are not involved in decisions madein connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handledindependently by the Justice Department,” said Carney. “Any questions about anongoing criminal investigation should be directed to the Department ofJustice.”

Meanwhile, US Attorney General Eric Holderdefended the probe during a Tuesday afternoon press conference, but said herecused himself from the investigation because he was interviewed earlier bythe FBI on the matter and didn’t want to provoke a conflict of interest.

"I don't know all that went into theformulation of the subpoena,” Holder said, adding that actions were taken aftera leak was of great severity was discovered that “put the American people atrisk.”

"I'm confident that people involved inthis investigation...did all things according to DOJ rules,” said Holder,although he admitted that some matters regarding the probe were beyond hisknowledge. Holder also admitted that a deputy attorney general approved of theprobe. Later on Tuesday, US Deputy Attorney General James Cole declined arequest made by the AP to return the seized phone records.

According to the AP, Cole told the agencythat the records were "limited to a reasonable period of time" anddid not seek the content of any calls.

"These records have been closely heldand reviewed solely for the purposes of this ongoing criminalinvestigation," Cole wrote.

The remarks from both the JusticeDepartment and the White House were made after the AP sent a letter to theattorney general lashing out at the latest revelation. In it, AP President andChief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt condemned the probe as a "massive andunprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations operate.

"There can be no possiblejustification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communicationsof The Associated Press and its reporters,” Pruitt wrote.

Before the Justice Department weighed in onthe scandal, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were up in arms over thenews. Even as the administration attests that the White House and JusticeDepartment weren’t in cahoots, politicians that are peeved by the matter aremaking it known that the Obama administration isn’t off the hook. Regardless ofwho approved the probe, many are saying the blame ultimately falls on thepresident, who campaigned on a promise of transparency yet oversees anadministration that investigates journalists.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), a staunchconstitutionalist, told Fox News on Monday, “This sounds like a presidentsomewhat drunk on power, not cautious about how he uses power.”

Obama, Paul told Fox host Sean Hannity, is“using the power of his government to investigate his enemies, he’s tapping thephones of the press, and it turns out last year he signed legislation thatallows him to detain an American without a trial and send them to GuantanamoBay.”

The White House is indeed currentlyfighting a lawsuit filed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges andothers that challenges that law, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.Under Section 1021 of the NDAA, the president can authorize the indefinitedetention of US citizens based off of vaguely defined associations withterrorists. Hedges said the NDAA puts him at risk of being sent to a facilitylike Guantanamo because his line of work regularly requires him to correspondwith persons considered terrorists by the US government.

“I met regularly with leaders of Hamas andIslamic Jihad in Gaza. I used to visit Palestine Liberation Organizationleaders, including Yasser Arafat and Abu Jihad, in Tunis when they were brandedinternational terrorists. I have spent time with the Revolutionary Guard inIran and was in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey with fighters from theKurdistan Workers’ Party. All these entities were or are labeled as terroristorganizations by the U.S. government,” Hedges wrote in protest last year. “Ihave had dinner more times than I can count with people whom this countrybrands as terrorists. But that does not make me one.”

The Obama administration’s attorneys havefought relentlessly to keep the NDAA on the books, even filing appeals topetition a federal judge after Section 1021 was deemed unconstitutional. Nowwith the AP’s latest revelation, though, members of the same Congress thatapproved of that bill only a year-and-a-half ago are attacking the White House.

“This is obviously disturbing,” HouseOversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-California) toldreporters. “Coming within a week of revelations that the White House lied tothe American people about the Benghazi attacks and the IRS targetedconservative Americans for their political beliefs, Americans should takenotice that top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves asabove the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer toanyone.”

In a tweet, Issa added that he found therevelation “disturbing.”

"Whether it is secretly targetingpatriotic Americans participating in the electoral progress or reportersexercising their First Amendment rights, these new revelations suggest apattern of intimidation by the Obama Administration,” weighed in Douglas Heye,a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia).

Michael Steel, a representative for HouseSpeaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said, “The First Amendment is first for areason. If the Obama Administration is going after reporters’ phone records,they better have a damned good explanation.”

Even members of Obama’s own DemocraticParty were disturbed by the AP’s report.

“The burden is always on the governmentwhen they go after private information – especially information regarding thepress or its confidential sources,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman PatrickLeahy (D-Vermont) told reporters. “I want to know more about this case, but onthe face of it, I am concerned that the government may not have met thatburden. I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear thegovernment’s explanation.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut)told the AP the Justice Department "must be forthcoming with the facts assoon as possible."

The AP reported that the investigation islikely in regards to a May 2012 exclusive the agency published in which acovert CIA operation was exposed. Earlier this year, CIA Director John Brennantold Congress that the FBI asked him if he was the source for the AP article.Brennan denied the allegation and said the release of information pertaining toa terror plot was an "unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classifiedinformation."

The AP wrote Monday that the letternotifying the agency of the investigation arrived last Friday, and acknowledgedthat subpoenas were used to obtain phone records from reporters and editors.

Matthew Miller, a former top spokesman forHolder, defended the department’s actions to reporters for the Huffington Post.

"This is how leaks getinvestigated," Miller said. "Leaking classified information is acrime, and there are usually only two parties who know who committed the crime,the leaker and the reporter. Getting access to phone records allowsinvestigators to see who the possible source might have been and confront themwith evidence of a crime."

During Tuesday’s press conference at theWhite House, Carney fielded a handful of questions on the probe by repeatedlydiffering journalists to a statement summarizing the president’s thoughts.

“I can tell you that the president feelsstrongly that we need the press to be able to be unfettered in its pursuit ofinvestigative journalism,” Carney said. “He also believes strongly as a citizenand president on the need to ensure classified information is not leaked.”

Journalist Afshin Rattansi spoke to RT,expressing his disturbance at how fewer and fewer outlets exist in the US forpeople to reveal information or expose wrongdoings, as they are beingsystematically removed one way or another in line with an age-old US tradition:

"Let’s face it – no whistle-blower orsource is now going to call the AP desk in New York or Washington