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Bush-Era Wiretapping Memos Released

Written in years after 9/11.

Memos over two decades old detailing the Bush administration’s justification for warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and emails after 9/11 were released Friday night. The memos, written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, make the case that the president has “inherent constitutional power” to monitor Americans’ communications without a warrant in a time of war. In one redacted memo, dated May 6, 2004, about the wiretapping program (code-named Stellar Wind), Goldsmith asserts that the president’s authority in this case is “an authority that Congress cannot curtail.” A staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union told the Washington Post that the memos show that three years after Bush authorized the wiretapping, “government lawyers were still struggling to put the program on sound legal footing. “Their conclusions are deeply disturbing. They suggest that the president’s power to monitor the communications of Americans is virtually unlimited—by the Constitution, or by Congress—when it comes to foreign intelligence.”