A Fox News reporter was targeted by the Obama administration for being a probable “co-conspirator” in a criminal spying case. The Fox News reporter may face trial.

The FBI is seeking access to the emails and phone records of Fox News reporter James Rosen after he ran a report based on a leak from the State Department.

Fox News reporter James Rosen has not been charged in the case, but government official Steven Jin-Woo Kim is facing charges of handing over a classified document.

In a court affidavit that was first reported by the Washington Post, the Justice Department said James Rosen, who is the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News, is "at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator" in a 2010 espionage case against State Department security adviser Stephen Jin-Woo Kim. In August 2010, Kim was indicted on charges of violating the Espionage Act of 1917.

Fox News executive vice-president of news editorial Michael Clemente said in a statement, "We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter. In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press."

The Department of Justice is charging Kim with handing over a classified government report that said North Korea would probably test a nuclear weapon in response to a UN resolution condemning previous tests in June 2009. On June 11, Fox News Reporter Rosen reported on the classified analysis under the headline “North Korea Intends to Match UN Resolution With New Nuclear Test.”

The Department of Justice has come under fire lately because of their widespread use of subpoena power against the AP. The subpoenas were seen as a threat to freedom of the press. The Justice Departent didn’t contact the AP before they secretly obtained two months of their journalists phone records.

The department also never contacted Fox News before going after Rosen’s records. Traditionally the government contacts media outlets prior to this kind of probe. The Department of Justice suggestion that Rosen may be guilty of criminal wrongdoing differs from a May 2012 report about a CIA-thwarted terrorist plot by the AP reporters. Rosen has not been charged with a crime in the case.

The FBI got a warrant to seize all of the Fox reporter's correspondence with Kim. They also looked through an additional two days' worth of Rosen's personal email and phone records. Investigators used security badge records to track the Fox reporter’s movements to and from the State Department.