Illegal wiretapping… bad, bad. How could they. "Everyone look, illegal wiretapping – that’s right, eat it up, it was wrong, you were being spied on illegally."
"Quick, while no one is looking, legalize e-mail spying! We already do it, we don’t want another situation when the public finds out."
From news.com:
What: The Justice Department asks a judge to approve Patriot Act e-mail monitoring without any evidence of criminal behavior.
When: Decided Feb. 2, 2006 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan in Washington, D.C.
Outcome: E-mail surveillance approved.
What happened: As part of a grand jury investigation that’s still secret, the Justice Department asked a federal magistrate judge to approve monitoring of an unnamed person’s e-mail correspondents.