Washington (CNN) -- When the government investigates the alleged unauthorized release of sensitive information, the focus is normally on the person doing the leaking. But the criminal case against a State Department contractor escalated dramatically, putting the spotlight on the person reportedly receiving those communications -- Fox News reporter James Rosen. The complex layer of once-secret search warrants for e-mails and phone records involving Rosen have raised constitutional concerns about press freedoms, balanced against national security. The investigation of that adviser, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, and a separate probe involving clandestine searches of Associated Press records, has prompted President Barack Obama to order a review of the federal government's practices involving leaks of classified material.
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Justice Department sought search warrants for electronic communication of Fox News reporter in connection with leak investigation
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Investigation focused on State Department contractor who may have been in contact with reporter
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The reporter has never been charged and as of late 2009, the government apparently had no interest going after him
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Attorney General Eric Holder has come under fire for Justice Department handling of the case
Barack Obama
"I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable," @placeholder said recently.
Fox News
Fox News
The warrant application was filed without the prior knowledge of @placeholder.
James Rosen
Rosen
The affidavit involving the @placeholder records says one of the main reasons for the search warrant was Kim had allegedly erased some e-mails that investigators were not able to recover.