Holder Faces Grilling in Congressional Hearing

IRS, AP, what the hell ... ?

Amid the ongoing controversies over political discrimination at the IRS and the Justice Department's seizure of two-months-worth of Associated Press (AP) phone records, the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday questioned Attorney General Eric Holder on those and other controversies tied to the Obama administration.

At the opening of the committee's hearing to conduct Justice Department oversight, Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told Holder he is "deeply concerned about a pattern I see emerging at the department under your leadership in which conclusions reached by career attorneys after thorough investigation are overruled by administration appointees for political reasons."

Goodlatte said the seizure of AP phone records appeared to "intersect important First Amendment protections" and noted that "any abridgement of the First Amendment right to the freedom of the press is very concerning."