New Legal Challenges Against Spying Program
The chickens are beginning to come home to roost in the NSA spying scandal. Defense lawyers representing a number of suspects in "terrorist" cases are attempting to find out from the government whether any evidence against their clients was illegally obtained from the controversial spying program.
According to today's New York Times, some of these lawyers are thinking seriously about suing President Bush for violating the rights of their clients.
The government failed to notify attorneys of the eavesdropping during the discovery phase of cases that have already been brought before courts. This is not surprising, since the program was secret, but there are provisions within the law for handling classified information in criminal cases. The government couldn't possibly use these means without exposing the existence of the spying program.
The government finds itself between the proverbial rock and hard place. By not revealing the extra-legal program to the defense attorneys and claiming in court that there was "no other surveillance", they have broken the law and jeopardized the "terrorism" cases.
Many of the "terrorism" cases brought by the government so far have been noteworthy for displaying dodgy and questionable tactics on the part of the prosecution.
Future cases will be harder for the government to prove now that defense attorneys will have allegations of illegally gathered evidence to brandish against the government in behalf of their clients.
According to today's New York Times, some of these lawyers are thinking seriously about suing President Bush for violating the rights of their clients.
The government failed to notify attorneys of the eavesdropping during the discovery phase of cases that have already been brought before courts. This is not surprising, since the program was secret, but there are provisions within the law for handling classified information in criminal cases. The government couldn't possibly use these means without exposing the existence of the spying program.
The government finds itself between the proverbial rock and hard place. By not revealing the extra-legal program to the defense attorneys and claiming in court that there was "no other surveillance", they have broken the law and jeopardized the "terrorism" cases.
Many of the "terrorism" cases brought by the government so far have been noteworthy for displaying dodgy and questionable tactics on the part of the prosecution.
Future cases will be harder for the government to prove now that defense attorneys will have allegations of illegally gathered evidence to brandish against the government in behalf of their clients.
posted by Effwit at 12:11 PM
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