Gov't Acknowledges Discussing Lawsuits with Telecom Company

[Hissyspit]

Source: Raw Story

Gov't acknowledges discussing lawsuits with telecom company

Nick Juliano
Published: Tuesday February 12, 2008

A US government attorney working for the Director of National Intelligence secretly discussed pending litigation with a telecommunications carrier, a top Intelligence official acknowledged this month. But much remains unknown about when the conversation took place or what advice the government attorney may have offered, as the Intelligence Director works to keep notes of the conversation classified.

In a filing released as part its ongoing lawsuit with a privacy watchdog, the government for the first time revealed the contents of a telephone message slip it previously withheld from a Freedom of Information Act response. A DNI administrative assistant took a message from a telecommunications company representative and gave the telco rep's name and number to a govenrment lawyer, who returned the phone call and took notes on the message slip, according to the filing.

The disclosure comes at the Senate is preparing for a final vote on a bill that would grant legal immunity to the telecommunications companies. Senate Democrats find themselves in precisely the situation they hoped to avoid in working to update a foreign surveillance law, and the push for immunity has created some deep divisions between the Senate and the House, as Roll Call reports.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a FOIA request for all documents concerning discussions or exchanges between Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell or others in his office and telecommunications carriers regarding efforts to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Hundreds of pages of documents were released in November and December detailing McConnell's discussions with Congress.


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