The news of an interrupted Al Qaeda bomb plot—first reported by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Adam Goldman of the AP—prompted the White House and the CIA to ask the wire to withhold the story.

The AP complied with the request until the next week, finally publishing the story over White House objections. The AP story was picked up by most major outlets, including the Times, adding new details, including the nationality of the double agent. White House insiders said that leak pushed James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, over the edge—furious at both the media and the source or sources of the leaks. (snip)

(The Department of Justice declined to say when the FBI started its investigations, and did not respond to the question of whether the White House asked Holder to investigate.)

Another consequence of the investigations, however, is that it puts the Obama administration on a collision course with some of the most powerful media outlets in the country.

We all know about Bradley Manning, but there HAS been a significant uptick in prosecuting those that leak information from this administration. I would like to see the Justice Department be able to do its job and find out how this information became public. I do have a sneaking suspicion that the GOP itself may not be as pleased with the results as they are with the ongoing witch hunt. Why? There are a number of people who think that it is quite possible that Darrell Issa may be behind these leaks. He's leaked information before, most recently, last month.

WASHINGTON -- House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has taken the unprecedented step of leaking a secret U.S. trade document, in hopes of pressuring President Barack Obama's administration into disclosing the details of a major trade deal with far-reaching implications on everything from "Buy American" contracting rules to prescription drug prices to internet freedom.

HOLDER: … I testified, I guess, back in June 2012, that I’d been interviewed by the FBI in connection with this — with this matter. And to avoid a potential — the appearance of a potential conflict of interest and to make sure that the investigation was seen as independent, I recused myself from this matter. We’ll get to you exactly when that happened, but it was early on in the investigation.

This matter has therefore — has thereafter been conducted by the U.S. attorney here in Washington, D.C., under the supervision of the deputy attorney general. The deputy attorney general would have been the one who ultimately had to authorize the subpoena that went to the AP.

Now, I am not familiar with all that went into the formulation of the subpoena.I was recused from that matter.

The government obtained the records from April and May of 2012 for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and its journalists, including main offices. AP's top executive called the action a massive and unprecedented intrusion into how news organizations do their work.

Federal officials have said investigators are trying to hunt down the sources of information for a May 7, 2012, AP story that disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bomb plot around the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. The probe is being run out of the U.S. Attorney's office in the District of Columbia. (snip)

In February, CIA Director John Brennan provided a less-than-ominous description of the plot in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee. He told the panel that "there was never a threat to the American public as we had said so publicly, because we had inside control of the plot and the device was never a threat to the American public."

The bomb plot came to light after the White House had told the public it had "no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden's death."

In a letter to AP on Tuesday, Cole said the Justice Department had adhered to its rules for subpoenas for the news media and hadn't sought information about the content of calls. "The records have not been and will not be provided for use in any other investigations," Cole wrote.

According to Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl, the most likely mechanism for Justice acquiring the information was a grand jury subpoena. (The Huffington Post's Ryan Reilly pointed to the form that Justice's attorney would have had to complete for a "Media Subpoena Request.") While the process is more involved for media organizations than for other witnesses in criminal cases — for example, the Attorney General must personally approve it — Opsahl told us that he considered it the most likely route. If the government had employed a more exotic form of request, such as a national security letter, it's likely the AP still wouldn't know that data had been collected. In the case of a grand jury subpoena, the government must notify the party that it has collected the information.

Rules published by the Justice Department require that subpoenas of records of news organizations must be personally approved by the attorney general, but it was not known if that happened in this case. The letter notifying AP that its phone records had been obtained through subpoenas was sent Friday by Ronald Machen, the U.S. attorney in Washington.

“Whether it is secretly targeting patriotic Americans participating in the electoral progress [sic] or reporters exercising their First Amendment rights, these new revelations suggest a pattern of intimidation by the Obama Administration,” Doug Heye, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said in a statement to TIME. “The First Amendment is first for a reason,” added Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. “If the Obama Administration is going after reporters’ phone records, they better have a damned good explanation.”