Tuesday, February 23, 2010
President Barack Obama has promised to disclose all contacts lobbyists have with his administration. But at the same time, his Department of Justice is working to keep hidden the names of lobbyists who won immunity for the telecommunications companies that took part in President George W. Bush’s unauthorized wiretapping program. The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) has been seeking the public disclosure of the lobbyists who convinced the Bush administration to protect AT&T, Verizon and Sprint from lawsuits for participating in the illegal wiretapping carried by the National Security Agency.
The EFF’s case against the telecom companies won an important ruling last week before a panel of judges serving on the Ninth Circuit appellate court, which rejected the federal government’s urging for “lobbyist privacy” to hide the identities of individuals who pressured Congress to grant the immunity.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Obama Pressed to Release Identity of Telecom Lobbyists (by William Fisher, Truthout)
Electronic Frontier Foundation v. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) (pdf)
FOIA: Telecom Lobbying Records (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
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