Justice Dept. doing interviews in oil spill probe

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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66A0YG20100711?type=politicsNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Politics+News%29

The Justice Department has started interviewing witnesses as part of the criminal and civil investigation of the oil spill that has sullied the Gulf of Mexico, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a television interview broadcast on Sunday.

The department has asked companies including BP Plc and the firm that drilled the well, Transocean Ltd, to preserve documents related to the explosion on the drill rig and subsequent spill as part of the government probe.

"We are in the process of accumulating documents, talking to witnesses on both the criminal side as well as the civil side," Holder said in an interview aired on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"There are a variety of entities and a variety of people who are the subjects of that investigation," he said, according to a transcript released by CBS. Holder declined to provide a timetable for possible action by the Justice Department.