Judy Miller: Seizure of Fox Reporter's Records 'Overly Broad'

The targeting of Fox News reporter James Rosen by the Justice Department is a "new interpretation'' of the nation's 1917 espionage law that goes "far beyond anything we've seen,'' journalist Judy Miller says.

"In order to get a subpoena for all of his records — his whereabouts, his emails, his telephone records — he became an actual co-conspirator, according to the government,'' Miller told "The Steve Malzberg Show'' on Newsmax TV.

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"It seems to be at the moment an extreme overly broad seizure without prior notice."

In June 2009, Rosen wrote that North Korea was expected to respond to sanctions by the United Nations with a nuclear missile test — classified information allegedly leaked by government adviser Stephen Jin-Woo Kim.

That apparently roiled the government, which has been overly aggressive in prosecuting those who leak to the press. Kim is now being charged under the 96-year-old Espionage Act.

But Miller — a Newsmax contributor and Fellow at the Manhattan, who was jailed for refusing to give up a source while at the New York Times — said the idea of targeting reporters is discomforting.

"Not only is the person who leaks classified information without authorization potentially criminal under the Espionage Act of 1917, but so is the reporter who gets the information and publishes it,'' she said.

"Now that, that is a new interpretation of law and it goes far beyond anything we've seen, even from this Justice Department.''

Miller believes the Justice Department will claim the Rosen case is a matter of national security.

"This involved North Korea and what the United States or the State Department thought North Korea was likely to do in response to something the Americans were doing, sanctions,'' she said.

Rosen has not been charged with a crime. On Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney declined on the surveillance of the reporter.

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