Sen. Dianne Feinstein put a bombshell on top of a bombshell by saying Congress was fully aware that Americans’ phone records have most likely been collected – in mass – for at least the past seven years..
“As far as I know, this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years,” said Feinstein, D-California. “This renewal is carried out by the FISA court under the business records section of the Patriot Act. Therefore it is lawful. It has been briefed to Congress.”
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CNN, (who has effectively buried this story,) says that the latest revaluation doesn’t mean all of Congress knew.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, head of the Appropriations Committee, called for a closed-door briefing of the entire Senate. When she read the news Thursday morning,
“It was like, oh, God, not one more thing … where we’re trying to protect America and then it looks like we’re spying on America,” she said at a hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday.
She asked Holder to give a classified briefing to the Appropriations Committee, and he agreed.