In 2013, during the Obama administration, the Department of Justice revealed that it had secretly obtained nearly two months of Associated Press telephone records from April–May 2012. The records covered 21 (often initially reported as “more than 20”) telephone lines, including:
- AP bureau/general office lines in Washington, New York and Hartford
- The AP line in the House of Representatives press gallery
- Work numbers of individual AP reporters/editors
- Some reporters’ personal/home and cellphone numbers
The affected offices employed more than 100 journalists, although that doesn't mean the government obtained the individual records of 100 reporters. The Associated Press
The important distinction is that this was not established to be wiretapping or listening to reporters' conversations. The DOJ obtained telephone metadata/toll records—information such as numbers called or calling, timing and duration—not the contents of the conversations. AP's contemporaneous reporting explicitly said there was no indication that actual conversations were monitored.
That's in addition to another false claim made in a post where you claim Hilary Clinton suggested Assange be droned - there is no record of that at all.
