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Does Barack Obama have an "enemies list?"
If so, what does he do with the list, and who is on it?
These are some of the questions raised in a lawsuit by Judicial Watch and award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson.
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The complaint alleges the Department of Justice and the White House monitored Attkisson, who worked for CBS News and now reports independently, because of her investigations into the Fast and Furious scandal.
Attkisson filed suit after the federal government essentially ignored requests to turn over information it had collected on her.
The Justice Department's Fast and Furious sting operation facilitated the sale of weapons to illegal straw buyers in an attempt to trace the weapons to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them. An estimated 2,000 weapons were part of the operation, but only about one-third were recovered, and no high-level cartel figures were arrested. One of the guns tracked by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was found at the scene of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.
Judicial Watch said it was able to obtain an Oct. 4, 2011, email to White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz from Tracy Schmaler, a top press aide to Attorney General Eric Holder, calling Attkisson "out of control."
Schmaler said: "I'm also calling Sharryl's (sic) editor and reaching out to (Bob) Scheiffer," the network's chief Washington correspondent.
Schultz responded: "Good. Her piece was really bad for the AG."
Attkisson in 2012 won an Emmy as well as the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting. In her book "Stonewalled" said she obtained information from a government-linked source that the FBI, among other agencies, "had hacked into both her personal and work computers over a lengthy period of time."
Judicial Watch said it is proud to represent Attkisson, calling her "a fiercely independent journalist, who has a demonstrated track-record of refusing to play the Washington media insiders' game that covers up or covers over public corruption stories such as Fast and Furious."
"We know from the emails we have already obtained that the Holder Justice Department sought to silence this courageous reporter. Now, we need to find out just how far they went," Judicial Watch said.
Attkisson said she is '"pleased to once again partner with Judicial Watch, which is unmatched in terms of success in litigating Freedom of Information claims against the federal government, whether under Bush or Obama."
"That I've had to sue to get my own FBI file is concerning. This administration has a terrible record in respecting the First Amendment rights of journalists," she said.