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Leahy asked what he thought of the Obama administration's decision

May 25, 2017 by Catherine Pope

Leahy asked what he thought of the Obama administration's decision to release the records—and the decision to hold the intelligence community accountable for their actions.

"It's a fair question," he responded. "How many NSA calls have you seen? Did it happen in the White House? When did it happen? Why? What happened to the phone companies?"

Leahy asked, "How many phone companies did you hear that did it? Why did they release their records?"

"The answer is we all know how many phone companies were involved in the program," said Leahy.

"And they did it on purpose," said Leahy.

Leahy added that the NSA had previously refused to release the records because they were "inadvertently withheld" from Congress, a requirement when they were required to do so under the Freedom of Information Act.

On the second day of hearings, Leahy gave two more questions and a series of questions regarding the case. He asked how the Justice Department would protect the public's privacy.

"The question that I would ask you is how would you protect the public's privacy if you had the right to ask it," Leahy said. "So, are you going to say that the government can't do that?"

Leahy then asked whether the government should have the right, for example, to refuse to release a court order that could "infringe" on the Fourth Amendment rights of the Fourth Amendment and the American citizen at large.

"Can you have the government tell you what information it has regarding you?" said Leahy.

"And if that information is not redacted or has not been redacted, why did you have to ask," Leahy said.

Leahy then said that this "doesn't include the government's Fourth Amendment rights," and that "we're saying that there is a legal right of access to this information."

The next day, Leahy gave a short speech on the subject—and he talked about that in detail, as well.

Leahy made the point that the Constitution allows the government to do, and has often defended its actions, but that he had never seen evidence of an attack on the privacy of anyone. He then asked if he had seen this case before.

"The Supreme Court has made very clear," Leahy said. "In the past a few months I have seen it. In this case, you had