EFF Fights Destruction of Spying Evidence in Court Wednesday

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Government Claims EFF's Lawsuits Don't Cover Ongoing Surveillance – Raising Fears Key Documents May Have Been Destroyed

UPDATE: Judge White today continued his temporary restraining order in these two cases until a more permanent order could be put in place. The question of whether the government improperly destroyed evidence so far will be briefed over the next several weeks.

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will fight disturbing new government claims in an emergency court hearing Wednesday – claims that may imply records documenting ongoing government surveillance have been destroyed despite a judge's order.
Over the last several weeks, EFF has been battling to ensure that evidence of the NSA surveillance program will be preserved as part of its two cases challenging the illegal government spying: Jewel v. NSA and First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA. But in a court filing late Monday, the government made shocking new assertions, arguing that its obligation to preserve evidence was limited to aspects of the original Bush-era spying program, which the government contends ended eight years ago with a transition to FISA court orders.
"This argument simply does not make sense. EFF has been demanding an injunction to stop this illegal spying program, regardless of the government's shifting justifications," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn, who will argue in front of U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White at the hearing Wednesday. "But these government claims aren't just nonsensical – they are extremely worrisome and dangerous. The government is suggesting it may have destroyed years' worth of evidence about its illegal spying, justified by its own secret interpretation of our case. This is about more than just phone records; it's about evidence concerning all of the government's spying. EFF is asking the court for a full accounting of just what is going on here, and it's time for the government to come clean."
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