The FBI is accessing private emails of suspects without as much as a warrant, records obtained by the ACLU suggest, according to NBC News.
The documents “paint a troubling picture of the government’s email surveillance practices,” wrote Nathan Freed Wessler, attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.
“Not only does the FBI claim it can read emails and other electronic communications without a warrant — even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment — but the documents strongly suggest that different U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country are applying conflicting standards to access communications content,” he wrote.
The records strongly suggest the FBI is obtaining the information without warrants, NBC News reported.
The FBI denied wrong doing.
In “all investigations, the FBI obtains evidence in accordance with the laws and Constitution of the United States, and consistent with Attorney General guidelines,” the agency said in an emailed statement.