Holder promises ‘nationwide’ investigation into IRS targeting

Attorney General Eric Holder will face tough questioning from a House committee Wednesday afternoon over twin scandals that have dogged the Obama administration this week: the seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors and the revelation that IRS employees singled out conservative nonprofits for extra scrutiny.

On Tuesday, Holder said at a news conference that the national security leak that prompted the department to seize AP phone records was among the most serious he had ever seen.

“I have to say this is ... among the top two or three most serious leaks I have ever seen. It put the American people at risk. That is not hyperbole,” he said. The leak led to an AP story last year about the government foiling a Yemeni-based terror plot to bomb American airliners.

Holder said he recused himself from the investigation, but that he believes the Justice Department acted appropriately.

Meanwhile, Holder told reporters that he has launched an investigation into reports that the IRS singled out conservative groups and subjected them to more review and scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status. The IRS' inspector general report said that a group of low-level staffers in an Ohio office were responsible.

Holder's appearance at the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee hearing was scheduled before the IRS and AP news broke, but will most likely now be focused on those issues. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chair of the committee, said in a statement that he plans to ask "pointed questions" about the Justice Department's decision to subpoena two months' of AP telephone records, as well as question Holder about the IRS and whether there were any intelligence failures in the lead-up to the Boston bombings.

Holder has long faced criticism from Republicans, some of whom called for his resignation in 2011 over the failed gun-walking Fast and Furious operation on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Justice Department's inspector general cleared him of wrongdoing in that scandal last year, blaming the botched operation on Arizona federal prosecutors and ATF agents.

Watch Holder's testimony above, at 1 p.m. ET.

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Family demands federal investigation into mysterious death of student

Al Sharpton, who spoke at an event demanding an investigation into the death of Kendrick Johnson

The family of Kendrick Johnson is demanding a federal investigation into his death.

While the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has ruled the death of an accident, his family disagreeing, arguing that Johnson was murdered at the school.

According to a story on ABC local station WALB News 10, officials believe Johnson, who died back in January, “was in the gym alone, reached into the mat to get something he dropped, and got stuck.”

The final autopsy report ruled the death accident as a result of “positional asphyxia.”

The family is not convinced. A Facebook page and organizations like Atlanta's National Action Network, have brought attention to the case, claiming that it was bungled: the coroner's office wasn't notified until hours after Johnson's death; that the body was moved and his clothes misplaced.

The sheriff denies that the body or clothes were moved, butt the coroner's office has expressed anger at not being contacted sooner.

"We want an independent investigation, let's just say by an agency with higher credentials than Lowndes County," chapter president Marcus Coleman told WALB.

"There's been a number of what we feel are inconsistencies, are mishandlings, and for that very reason is why we want another set of eyes," he added.

The family has organized community protests in Valdosta, one attended by the civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

The reverend started a fund, for which he contributed $500, to give to anyone who had evidence that would prove the 17-year-old’s death not to be accidental.

"It puts Valdosta on the map for real,” Johnson’s aunt, Susie Kier, said. She added, “It lets the people of Valdosta Georgia know that Kendrick Johnson's life stood for something. Let them know that he was a great little boy. That we loved him dearly."

According to the Examiner, the family has requested a coroner’s inquest, and Lowndes County Coroner Bill Watson agreed to proceed.

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Obama defends FBI handling of Boston investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is defending the FBI's handling of the Boston Marathon bombing investigation as Republicans ready for oversight hearings on the attack.

Obama tells the Spanish-language television network Univision he doesn't think it's fair to say law enforcement "dropped the ball"

The president says "there are going to be times where individuals decide they want to cause harm to people for crazy reasons, for no good reason, for ideological reasons."

He says it's a challenge when would-be attackers are "self-radicalizing" and not part of a broad conspiracy. Obama says the FBI "can't arrest somebody just based on a rumor."

The first of a series of House hearings is set for Thursday before the GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee.

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