Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Tuesday called for the resignation of Eric Holder, amid reports the attorney general allowed the Justice Department to monitor phone logs of Associated Press reporters.
Holder, he said in
a press release, "has trampled on the First Amendment and failed in his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution."
"Because Attorney General Holder has so egregiously violated the public trust, the president should ask for his immediate resignation.
"If President Obama does not, the message will be unmistakable: The President of the United States believes his administration is above the Constitution and does not respect the role of a free press," Priebus added.
Holder has been under pressure from the GOP to quit for more than two years over the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal. The AP monitoring case has given Republicans a new avenue to attack his tenure while in charge of the Justice Department.
"Freedom of the press is an essential right in a free society," said Holder. "The First Amendment doesn’t request the federal government to respect it; it demands it."
Priebus' call comes after AP reported Monday that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors.
The attorney general is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
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