CNN said Thursday it declined to attend a meeting with attorney general Eric Holder about Justice leak investigations involving journalists.
Holder is under instructions from president Obama to review those leak investigation policies -- and to hold the meeting with journalist organizations -- after one such investigation included obtaining phone records from AP without informing editors and journalists there, and another included a warrant to a Fox News reporter suggesting he could be a co-conspirator in a leak.
Both drew fire from journalist groups and First Amendment attorneys.
CNN reported on the meeting Thursday (May 30), including its own decision to boycott it. "Like the New York Times and the Associated Press, CNN will decline the invitation for an off-the-record meeting," said the news outlet. CNN said that if the meeting were on the record, it would participate.
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether attorney general Eric Holder was not telling the truth when he told the committee that he he had never been involved in the potential prosecution of the press and thought that it was not a "wise policy."
