There have been no staff-wide meetings to discuss the nature of the investigation. | REUTERS Inside the AP: Fear, determination

Reporters across The Associated Press are outraged over the Justice Department’s sweeping seizure of staff phone records — and they say such an intrusion could chill their relationships with confidential sources.

In conversations with POLITICO on Tuesday, several AP staffers in Washington, D.C., described feelings of anger and frustration with the DOJ and with the Obama administration in general.


“People are pretty mad — mad that government has not taken what we do seriously,” one reporter said on Tuesday. “When the news broke yesterday … people were outraged and disgusted. No one was yelling and screaming, but it was like, ‘Are you kidding me!?’”

( Also on POLITICO: Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill)

“People are ticked,” said another. “Everyone supports the reporters involved.”

The behind-the-scenes anger — and heads-down determination of the AP staff members to keep doing their jobs amid the extraordinary public flap — comes as top executives from the wire service have mounted an aggressive public pushback against DOJ, calling its snooping a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” in a letter fired off to Attorney General Eric Holder. And yet something of a bunkerlike atmosphere has taken hold at the AP in Washington with no bureau-wide meetings or announcements about the DOJ’s action, AP sources told POLITICO.

The AP employees interviewed by POLITICO did not want to be identified because, according to several sources, at least some journalists have been asked not to speak to the news media.

( Also on POLITICO: Journalists fume over DOJ raid on AP)

“It’s a sensitive matter, our reporters aren’t giving interviews,” AP spokeswoman Erin Madigan White told POLITICO when asked about the order.

Early Tuesday afternoon, an individual at the AP Washington bureau who identified himself as the facilities manager told POLITICO to stop questioning reporters outside the office and address questions to corporate communications. “You have to understand our position,” he said. “We have to have a clear and consistent message.”

The chief concern about the government probe, according to many of those journalists, is that the DOJ’s intrusion will compromise their relationships with confidential sources, some of whom now fear that their private correspondence could be obtained by the federal government.

“We all know that confidential sourcing is the lifeblood of what we do, and people can’t come to us if they think they’re going to be compromised,” one reporter said. “It’s hard enough getting sources, now we’re afraid this is going to have a chilling effect.”

( WATCH: AP exec editor: We're "distressed" DOJ seized records)

“I had a source today who contacted me and joked about meeting on a park bench, but he was half-serious,” the reporter continued. “How bizarre would that be in 2013?”

AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt described on Monday described the DOJ action as a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” On Tuesday, Madigan White said the company had nothing to add to yesterday’s statement.

But reporters have not lost their resolve. If anything, they seem to feel invigorated.

“Nobody is downtrodden,” an AP reporter told POLITICO. “We really are just pushing ahead with our jobs. It’s not like we are all sitting around watching the front office meetings fretting about how we will go forward.”

The AP’s leadership has not addressed the newsroom yet. There have been no staffwide meetings to discuss the nature of the Justice Department’s investigation or what the AP plans to do going forward.

“Today seemed kind of normal, we’re all working on chasing down the story,” said another reporter. “We’re kind of taking it in stride; we’re used to getting hit like this. We’re always working on stories with a degree of sensitivity.”

But both Pruitt and AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll have been very public in their opposition to the Justice Department’s move. DOJ has not disclosed its reasons for seeking the phone records, though it is believed to be in connection to a criminal investigation into the source for the AP’s May 7, 2012, story about the foiled “underwear bomber” plot.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, Pruitt called the seizure of records “a serious interference with AP’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news.” On Tuesday, Carroll told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the AP is “distressed” by the news.

Other members of the media have rallied to the AP’s defense.

“It’s chilling, and they owe us an explanation,” NBC News Political Director and White House correspondent Chuck Todd said on Tuesday. “This is intimidation and that’s what it feels and looks like and unless they have a different explanation, there is no other conclusion to draw than a way to intimidate whistleblowers.”

“It is outrageous, totally inexcusable,” Carl Bernstein, the investigative reporter, said on MSNBC. “This administration has been terrible on this subject from the beginning. The object of it is to intimidate people who talk to reporters. This was an accident waiting to become a nuclear event and now it’s happened. There’s no excuse for it whatsoever. There’s no reason for this investigation, especially on this scale.”