Republican leader says US attorney general should resign over subpoena of AP telephone records

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the Republican National Committee says Attorney General Eric Holder should resign over the decision by the Justice Department to secretly obtain two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press.

RNC chairman Reince Priebus says Holder has “trampled on the First Amendment” by allowing the Justice Department he heads to issue secret subpoenas to “spy” on The AP. The amendment in the U.S. Constitution guarantees a free press.

At the same time, the American Society of News Editors called the actions “outrageous” and “appalling.”

The records obtained by the Justice Department for April and May 2012 listed calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters and AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Connecticut.

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