Senator Wyden Warns That The Justice Department Is Lying To The Courts; Also Still Worried About Secret Law

from the keep-plugging-at-this dept

We've been noting for years: when Senator Ron Wyden says that (1) there's a secret interpretation of a law that is at odds with the public's understanding of it, or (2) that government officials are lying, you should pay attention. It may take a while, but it always comes out eventually that he's absolutely correct. For at least five years now, we've been posting semi-regular updates to Wyden calling out the government for its secret interpretations of the law, and some of that was proven entirely accurate thanks to the Snowden revelations concerning how the PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act had been interpreted. However, since the Snowden revelations, Wyden has made it clear that that's not all. In particular, he's spoken about a Justice Department legal opinion, written by John Yoo, that Wyden insists is important and should be revealed.

A year ago, we wrote about Wyden asking then Attorney General Eric Holder to release the document, which is currently the subject of a FOIA lawsuit filed by the ACLU. He's now asking yet again for it, in a new letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch:
As you may be aware, I have previously written to the Department of Justice regarding a particular secret legal opinion from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. which has now been the subject of a recent suit under the Freedom of information Act. This opinion remains classified, but it pertains to common commercial service agreements. The DOJ's motion to dismiss the now-pending FOIA case also noted that this opinion was signed by Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yen and dated March 30, 2003.

As I have noted in previous correspondence with the DOJ, I believe that this opinion is inconsistent with the public's understanding of the law, and should be withdrawn. I also believe that this opinion should be declassified and released to the public, so that anyone who is a party to one of these agreements can consider whether their agreement should be revised or modified. For these reasons, I encourage you to direct DOJ officials to comply with the pending FOIA request.
As we noted in our previous coverage, the contents of this memo almost certainly impact the various cybersecurity issues, in particular the Cybersecurity law (a variation on CISA) that passed and became law late last year.

But, the much bigger news comes in the following paragraph, in which Senator Wyden says that the DOJ is lying to the court in trying to kill the ACLU's FOIA request:
Additionally, I am greatly concerned that the DOJ's March 7, 2016, memorandum of law contains a key assertion which is inaccurate. This assertion appears to be central to the DOJ's legal arguments, and I would urge you to take action to ensure that this error is correct.

I am enclosing a classified attachment which discusses this inaccurate assertion in more detail.
You can see the DOJ's memorandum of law here (or embedded below) to see if you can sniff out the "key assertion which is inaccurate." Marcy Wheeler, who is damn good at this stuff, has some suggestions and thoughts, though each has some caveats. Either way, just the fact that this is a guessing game is ridiculous. The fact that the DOJ appears to be purposely misleading the court is a travesty -- but one that has become all too common these days.

In the meantime, are there any legal opinions that John Yoo authored that didn't turn out to be absolutely horrific? He wrote the legal opinion that authorized torture. And just a few weeks ago, another one of his ridiculous legal opinions (from 2002) was released, revealing his absolutely ridiculous legal rationale for warrantless wiretapping. Yoo seemed to specialize in trying to paper over basically anything illegal that the government wanted to do.


Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: eric holder, foia, john yoo, loretta lynch, olc, ron wyden, secret interpretation, secret law
Companies: aclu


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 8:51am

    the hypocrisy, it burns...

    stupid shit crunchy berkleyites who shit on bernie, etc,but dont say boo about yoo ?
    screw those identity politics nazis...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 8:51am

    John Yoo could somehow argue that murdering all babies is in the interest of world peace. He would take Gold in the Mental Gymnastics Olympics.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 5:04pm

      Re:

      Oh that's easy, even I can do that.

      "With no babies, the world will eventually have peace, maybe not in my lifetime *pounds table*, but it will be soon!"

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        John Fenderson (profile), 25 Mar 2016 @ 5:47pm

        Re: Re:

        Further, murdering all the babies is literally the only way we'll ever have world peace, long term.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 26 Mar 2016 @ 8:26am

          Re: Re: Re:

          Further, murdering all the babies is literally the only way we'll ever have world peace, long term.

          Global thermonuclear holocaust for peace.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 9:00am

    yoo papers over any legal obstacle? paper hanger redux?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    CrandallB, 25 Mar 2016 @ 9:00am

    Get some BackBone, Wyden !

    Wyden's timid & vague warnings about gross criminalities in the Federal government ... are getting pretty old after many years (and clearly ineffective).

    Wyden should get some backbone and stand up for the overall good of the nation-- publicly state everything he knows that supports his allegations.

    The corrupt Federal bureaucracy will of course go at him aggressively -- but it would be a very difficult and uncertain chore to prosecute a WhistleBlower who is a sitting U.S. Senator; a media storm would arise that would greatly aid the exposure of Federal crimes.

    Find some real courage Wyden ! (...or go hide with the rest of the worthless U.S.Senators)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 25 Mar 2016 @ 10:09am

      Re: Get some BackBone, Wyden !

      Are you looking for long term results or a political suicide exhibition?

      Maybe it is just perspective? From his point of view he can do more over a longer period of time via his methods.

      From your point of view jumping from a bridge onto a highway crowded with 70 mph vehicles racing along hoping to stop traffic is better. Yes, some vehicles will stop, for a short time, others will slow down and gawk, some won't even take notice. Eventually the emergency crews will show up and scrape the lifeless body off the tarmac. To what end?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      klaus (profile), 26 Mar 2016 @ 3:03am

      Re: Get some BackBone, Wyden !

      You're blaming the good guy?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 10:25am

    Double secret probation

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 10:35am

    Remember when perjury was a crime?

    I'm not kidding. It really was at one time.

    Now, perjury is OK and whistle blowing is a crime.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 10:37am

    Nope. There are no long-term results with non-disclosure. He can point to things all he want's, time and time again, and the DOJ will always be non-forthcoming. He knows this, which is why he already PROMISED to reveal what he's talking about to the floor, should they be non-forthcoming. To date, they've been non-forthcoming, and to date, so has he - DESPITE HIS PROMISE.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Almost Anonymous (profile), 25 Mar 2016 @ 11:17am

      Re:

      I'm going to need a citation here. I cannot recall ever seeing anything that reported Wyden saying that he would voluntarily break the law in order to reveal classified information, even for the good of the American public.

      Also, unless you want to escape to and then live in Russia for the rest of your life, it's probably not a great idea to do this. Expecting a politician to have the bravery, courage, and expertise to pull it off is unreasonable.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 10:43am

    The Marcy Wheeler link only works correctly when you click on her home page for some reason.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 12:28pm

    If Wyden were to expose this travesty of word twisting to justify government actions, despite what the law says, at the least his classified status would be pulled so fast, the paper would burn up from the air friction.

    Our forefathers of this nation would be ashamed to see the secret laws, provided by a secret court, that the public can't know about. Ignorance of the law is now a valid excuse.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Autonomous Coward, 25 Mar 2016 @ 1:47pm

    Yoo who?

    John Yoo has always been a cognitive dissonance with two legs and a mouth. He must keep in shape by believing two impossible things each morning before breakfast.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.