By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The Justice Department is defending the DEA’s legally questionable, disbanded eavesdropping program that often was used by drug officials in the Los Angeles suburbs.
The USA Today reports that the Justice Department implored a judge not to toss out the wiretaps that were used in a marijuana trafficking case, despite earlier objections from government lawyers who believed the practice may have been illegal.
The Justice Department aid the wiretaps were “authorized in accordance with state and federal law.”
The surveillance was used so often that it once counted for nearly a fifth of all U.S. wiretaps.
The surveillance allowed federal authorities to intercept millions of calls and text messages with a single state court’s approval.
Defense lawyers in the marijuana case said the prosecutors approved “illegal wiretaps with astounding frequency” and urged a judge to dismiss the surveillance.
