Okay, I still haven’t gotten through the IG Report on exigent letters. But Ryan Singel at Threat Level has–and he made a really disturbing find. Obama’s OLC (the one that Dawn Johnsen might have been leading if anyone had pressured Arlen Specter when he flipped parties) legalized the illegal use of exigent letters several weeks ago.
But in a surprise buried at the end of the 289-page report, the inspector general also reveals that the Obama administration issued a secret rule almost two weeks ago saying it was legal for the FBI to have skirted federal privacy protections.
[snip]
The Obama administration retroactively legalized the entire fiasco via a secret ruling from the Office of Legal Counsel.
That’s the same office from which John Yoo blessed President George W. Bush’s Bush’s torture techniques and warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ communications that crossed the border.
In the report’s final and heavily censored section, it discloses that the Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion almost two weeks ago that it was legal for the FBI to obtain Americans’ phone records in the same manner that was harshly criticized by the inspector general’s report.
The inspector general also warned that the Office of Legal Counsel’s ruling needs to be considered by Congress.
Basically, it seems Obama attempted to make all the poison fruit based on these illegal searches legal by using the same tactic David Addington would–by having a lawyer at OLC make it okay.
