In a new interview with MSNBC, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that he had not read the new surveillance report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB)—but nonetheless disagreed with its findings. That report, which was released on Thursday by the Congressionally approved board, argued that the NSA's telephone metadata program was illegal.
“At least 15 judges on about 35 occasions have said that the program itself is legal,” Holder said. “I think that those other judges, those 15 judges, got it right.”
Holder and the White House have both expressed great skepticism at the PCLOB’s recommendations.
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that while the Obama Administration took the PCLOB discussions and recommendations under advisement, it didn't agree with the report's conclusions.“On the issue of [the phone metadata dragnet under Section] 215, we simply disagree with the board’s analysis on the legality of the program,” Carney said.
“Consistent with the recent holdings of the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the Southern District of California, as well as the finding of 15 judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on 36 separate occasions over the past seven years, the administration believes that the program is lawful. As the President has said, however, he believes we can and should make changes in the program that will give the American people greater confidence in it. Essentially, the President announced that he would be ending the program as it currently exists, and he has instructed Congress and others to evaluate in the coming weeks ways to handle the data so that the federal government does not retain control of that data.”
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