Re: Judge Rejects Delay on FBI Wiretap Data

[merriman@metronet.com (David K. Merriman)]

>Subject: Judge Rejects Delay on FBI Wiretap Data
>Date: 3 Oct 1994 16:49:03 GMT

>=============================================================

>PRESS RELEASE

>For immediate release
>October 3, 1994

>Contact:
>   Marc Rotenberg, EPIC Director
>   David Sobel, EPIC Legal Counsel
>   202 544 9240 (tel)


>            JUDGE REJECTS DELAY ON FBI WIRETAP DATA;

>                 "STUNNED" BY BUREAU'S REQUEST

>WASHINGTON, D.C.- A federal judge today denied the FBI's request 
>for a five-year delay in processing documents concerning wiretap 
>legislation now pending in Congress.  

>     Saying he was "stunned" by the Bureau's attempt to postpone 
>court proceedings for five years, U.S. District Judge Charles R. 
>Richey ordered the FBI to release the material or to explain its 
>reasons for withholding it by November 4.

>     The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public 
>interest research group based in Washington, DC, filed the Freedom 
>of Information Act lawsuit on August 9, the day legislation was 
>introduced in Congress to authorize the expenditure of $500 
>million to make the nation's communications systems easier to 
>wiretap.  The group is seeking the public release of two surveys 
>cited by FBI Director Louis Freeh in support of the pending 
>legislation. 

>     The FBI had moved to stay proceedings in the case until June 
>1999, more than five years after the filing of the initial 
>request.  The Bureau asserted it was confronted with "a backlog of 
>pending FOIA requests awaiting processing."  The FBI revealed that 
>there are "an estimated 20 pages to be reviewed" but said that the 
>materials would not be reviewed until "sometime in March 1999."

>     Judge Richey rejected the FBI's claims in sharp language from 
>the bench.  He told the government's attorney to "call Director 
>Freeh and tell him I said this matter can be taken care of in an 
>hour and a half."

>     In court papers filed late last week, EPIC charged that 
>the requested materials are far too important to be kept secret. 
>"The requested surveys were part of the FBI's long-standing 
>campaign to gain passage of unprecedented legislation requiring 
>the nation's telecommunications carriers to redesign their 
>telephone networks to more easily facilitate court-ordered 
>wiretapping," said the EPIC brief.

>     Earlier documents obtained through the FOIA in similar 
>litigation with the FBI revealed no technical obstacles to the 
>exercise of court-authorized wire surveillance.

>     The FBI is pushing for quick enactment of the wiretap 
>legislation in the closing days of the 103rd Congress.  A 
>grassroots campaign to oppose the measure is being coordinated by 
>EPIC and Voters Telecomm Watch.

>     The Electronic Privacy Information Center is a project of 
>Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a membership 
>organization based in Palo Alto, California, and the Fund for 
>Constitutional Government, a Washington-based foundation dedicated 
>to the protection of Constitutional freedoms. 202 544 9240 (tel), 
>202 547 5482 (fax), info@epic.org (e-mail).

>=============================================================

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