The Associated Press said on Monday that the Justice Department obtained two months worth of phone records from reporters and editors without its knowledge. The most widely used newswire service in the country said that it was not told why it obtained the records and called the move a violation of its Constitutional rights.

The AP said that the Justice Department got records of work and personal numbers for staffers at the Washington, New york and Hartford offices and the general number for the AP’s press gallery in the House of Representatives. The exact number of journalists whose records were obtained is unknown, but the AP had over 100 working in these offices between April and May 2012.

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt wrote in an angry letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday. “These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know.”

While the exact reason for the seizure of records is unknown, the AP notes that it could be linked to its May 7, 2012 story on a failed terror plot that the CIA stopped. The story went into the full details of how the operation worked and a U.S. attorney in WAshington was investigating how the AP got its information. CIA Director John Brennan said that the FBI asked him if he was the source, which he denied. During his February testimony, Brennan called the release an “unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information.”

According to CNN, immediately after the AP went public with the story, members of Congress issued statements concerning a possible breach of the AP’s right to report the news. The ACLU also wants answers from the Justice Department.

“The First Amendment is first for a reason. If the Obama administration is going after reporters' phone records, they better have a damned good explanation,” Michael Steel, House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman, said.

“I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government's explanation,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said.

The White House has been aggressively investigating leaks to the media, but the administration said Monday that they were not aware of what the Justice Department did until it broke in the press. “We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department," spokesman Jay Carney said.

“They had an obligation to look for every other way to get it before they intruded on the freedom of the press,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif), the chairman of the investigative House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told CNN.

image: Twitter