Judge orders feds to pay $2.5M in wiretapping case

[ChiTownVenture]

Judge orders feds to pay $2.5M in wiretapping case

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the U.S. government to pay more than $2.5 million in attorney fees and damages after he concluded investigators wiretapped the phones of a suspected terrorist organization without a warrant.

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said the attorneys for the Ashland, Ore., chapter of the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation should receive $2.5 million for waging its nearly five-year legal challenge to the Bush administration's so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program.

Walker also awarded $20,400 each to Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, two of the foundation's Washington D.C.-based lawyers. They had their phone conversations with Al-Haramain principals monitored, the judge said.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/21/AR2010122105307.html

[ChiTownVenture]

Generally, government investigators are required to obtain search warrants signed by judges to eavesdrop on domestic phone calls, e-mail traffic and other electronic communications. But Bush authorized the surveillance program shortly after 9/11, allowing the National Security Agency to bypass the courts and intercept electronic communications believed connected to al-Qaida.

Bush ended the program in January 2007.

[ChiTownVenture]

Looks like a case of the government overstepping, I wonder if they would have been able to get the warrants to use the wire taps if they tried.

[billisonboard]

"Feds" don't pay, we pay. Wish that they could go after the government officials directly instead.