Terrorism
Judge Allows Revised Suit Alleging Lawyer Wiretaps
Posted Jan 6, 2009, 02:06 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal judge has refused to dismiss a revised lawsuit that contends the government illegally wiretapped two lawyers for an Islamic charity suspected of supporting terrorism.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco said the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation had produced enough publicly available evidence to show the charity’s phone calls may have been tapped without court approval, the Associated Press reports. As a result, he ruled, foundation lawyer Jon Eisenberg may review a classified document that was the original basis for the lawsuit by the foundation.
The classified document, mistakenly turned over to the defense, reportedly contained a summary of intercepted conversations, the Recorder reports. Walker had tossed the original suit, ruling that the charity must use publicly available information rather than the classified document to make an initial showing that it was “aggrieved” under the wiretap law.
Foundation lawyer Jon Eisenberg filed a revised suit relying on public documents, including congressional testimony and an FBI official’s ABA speech delivered in October 2007. The official, Deputy FBI Director John Pistole, said the agency’s probe of the charity relied on investigative tools that included surveillance.