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FBI Kept Demanding Email Records Despite DOJ Saying It Needed a Warrant (theintercept.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The secret government requests for customer information Yahoo made public Wednesday reveal that the FBI is still demanding email records from companies without a warrant, despite being told by Justice Department lawyers in 2008 that it doesn't have the lawful authority to do so.
That comes as a particular surprise given that FBI Director James Comey has said that one of his top legislative priorities this year is to get the right to acquire precisely such records with those warrantless secret requests, called national security letters, or NSLs. 'We need it very much,' Comey told Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., during a congressional hearing in February.
That comes as a particular surprise given that FBI Director James Comey has said that one of his top legislative priorities this year is to get the right to acquire precisely such records with those warrantless secret requests, called national security letters, or NSLs. 'We need it very much,' Comey told Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., during a congressional hearing in February.
The FBI is the ENEMY of the American people...
Or were these fishing expeditions whose point was to gin up some extra parallel discovery?
Here's the thing. What I mind about this situation is the opaqueness. The article is very light on details of what the FBI thought it was trying to find or why it was going about it without the warrants. Did the agents involve not get the memo? Did their supervisors not know what the agents were up to? Were the agents told to not do it this was and actively ignoring those orders? That is where my problem with this starts. We don't know those details and as a voter and citizen in order to make a good decision about this, I need to know.
Instead we'll get another "thin blue line" stall while the "appropriate authorities" investigate. It makes it hard to have faith in the FBI's work when something like this happens. To the rest of us, it looks like it's another CYA situation. Another where no real punishments are handed down and agents are shuffled around like priests to outlying and small churches in order to avoid any further embarrassment. I, for one, don't want "optics" to change my mind, I want to see the evidence. I want to see those in charge engage and manage. And most of all, I want to see heads roll IF AND ONLY IF that is appropriate in the situation.
But like I said before, I don't know the situation and no one is talking. That is a big problem.
Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought, regardless of its merits, solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a meritorious cause of action. Filing vexatious litigation is considered an abuse of the judicial process and may result in sanctions against the offender.
Italicized emphasis mine.
repetitive? check
burdensome? I'd have to ask Yahoo whether the FBI was going to foot the bill for the time spent gathering the information.
unwarranted? as suggested by the literal lack of warrant, check
All that's left is the FBI to try to apply the all writs act and now we've got the litigation portion covered.
Now you'd have Yahoo required and the FBI expressly forbidden from completing the actions by law. I think this needs to see trial.
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
They're "requesting" it in the same way that Vinnie from the mob "requests" protection money. So the crimes would be some combination of intimidation, coercion, extortion, racketeering, RICO act violations, etc.
I hope you agree that even if the government "can" currently do that (given that it's unlikely to prosecute itself for its own crimes), it should cease doing so.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It is legal for them to ASK for data. It is NOT legal for them to DEMAND data under the cover of a National Security Letter.
They did the latter as documented by the now released NSL they gave to Yahoo.