With President Obama already under pressure over news of the IRS targeting conservative groups and allegations of a cover-up related to last year's deadly attacks in Benghazi, the White House has sought to distance the president from the Justice Department's seizure of phone records from the Associated Press.
In a statement delivered to the media through a White House pool report, Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed that the White House had no knowledge of the Justice Department's efforts.
"Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP," Carney said.
"We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department," he added. "Any questions about an ongoing criminal investigation should be directed to the Department of Justice."
The Associated Press indicated that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records from its reporters and editors.
While the Justice Department would not say why it sought the records, the AP suggested that the seizure was related to an investigation into who leaked information regarding a foiled terror plot in Yemen last year.
In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said, "There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters."
Pruitt argued that the phone records could potentially reveal communications with confidential sources and demanded their return and the destruction of all copies.
The news of the seizure of AP phone records adds to the recent narrative being crafted by some conservative groups of an abuse of power by the Obama administration.
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