The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told a federal court today that there was no doubt that the government has destroyed years of evidence of NSA spying – the government itself has admitted to it in recent court filings. In a brief filed today in response to this illegal destruction, EFF is asking that the court make an « adverse inference » that the destroyed evidence would show that plaintiffs communications and records were in fact swept up in the mass NSA spying programs. […]
« EFF and our clients have always had the same simple claim: the government’s mass, warrantless surveillance violates the rights of all Americans and must be stopped. The surveillance was warrantless under the executive’s authority and it is still warrantless under the FISA court, as those orders are plainly not warrants. » said Cohn. « The government’s attempt to limit our claims based upon their secret, shifting rationales is nothing short of outrageous, and their clandestine decision to destroy evidence under this flimsy argument is rightly sanctionable. Nevertheless, we are simply asking the court to ensure that we are not harmed by the government’s now-admitted destruction of this evidence. » […]
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-court-theres-no-doubt-government-destroyed-nsa-spying-evidence