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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 only one of the cogs. Isn't it troubling when you can read either as ...
The secret *government requests* for customer information
or
The *secret government* requests for customer information
because the FISA Court allows for exactly that, a secret and unaccountable government. Some day they'll swap "Foreign" for "Federal" in that acronym and nobody will notice any difference.
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
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.