The FBI illegally gathered records of more than 2,000 domestic telephone calls between 2002 and 2006, by invoking nonexistent
terrorist threats or by simply asking phone companies for the information, The Washington Post reported. The bureau often justified the privacy violations by issuing approvals for its record-collecting after the fact.
Calling their methods “good-hearted but not well-thought-out,” FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni said, “We should have stopped those requests from being made that way.” Records show that FBI managers continued to approve requests for records for two years after bureau lawyers raised concerns.
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