Eric Holder: I Know Nothing About DOJ Grabbing AP Phone Records

"The AP? The name's vaguely familiar, but I don't really know anything about what goes on in my department. Besides it was all the fault of the Deputy Director who is a mean, racist man who eats trans-fats and drinks cocktails seasoned with the tears of children."

Attorney General Eric "We're a Nation of Cowards" Holder held a press conference regarding the AP phone record seizures. Holder bravely claimed he recused himself from the subpoenas and knows nothing about anything and wasn't even around anyway when all of this happened.

From Fox News (h/t Jacobson at Legal Insurrection):

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that his deputy "ultimately authorized the subpoena" to secretly obtain phone records from The Associated Press, and said he had recused himself early on in the related investigation into leaks of sensitive information that "put the American people at risk."

Word that Deputy Attorney General James Cole is directing the FBI probe came as the White House expressed confidence in Holder and the department following revelations that it had seized phone records involving as many as 20 AP reporters and editors in an effort to find out who leaked confidential information to it.

Holder said Tuesday that the leak in question, which the AP has suggested involved a foiled terror attack originating in Yemen, was "very, very serious," but declined to elaborate. He said it was among the most serious he'd seen in his career and that it "required very aggressive action."

"It put the American people at risk," he told reporters during a press conference Tuesday.
Holder said he recused himself to avoid a conflict of interest. He said the investigation followed "all of the appropriate Department of Justice regulations."

"As the Attorney General testified in June 2012, he was interviewed by the FBI in connection with the investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information," a DOJ official told Fox News earlier.

"To avoid any potential appearance of a conflict of interest, the Attorney General recused himself from this matter," said the official, who spoke on background. "Since that time, this investigation has been conducted by the FBI under the direction of the U.S. Attorney and the supervision of the Deputy Attorney General, who has served as the Acting Attorney General overseeing this investigation. The decision to seek media toll records in this investigation was made by the Deputy Attorney General consistent with Department regulations and policies."

It really seems that the only thing the Obama Administration excels at-- aside from spreading poverty, reducing wealth, raising gas prices to an unbearable level, handing out public money to friends and campaign donors, and keeping unemployment unacceptably high-- is knowing nothing about anything and then blaming others for the fallout.

Man, Obama and his people must be just running and ducking for cover like crazy. Holder's explanation that he deals with the media too much, so had to recuse himself is beyond pale. Holder's taking a page from Obama's campaign and tossing another beneath the bus.

I have a hard time believing that Holder's "I know nothing about nothing" excuse is really going to fly or that it will take people's attention off of the unfolding scandal. Now if they could find a way to blame Bush, Congressional Republicans of the Tea Party...