The Obama administration published the heavily censored files on Monday night as part of an ongoing civil liberties lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the government's collection of phone records, which the White House has said is important to countering terrorism. The files published were heavily censored: one of the two justifications for the government to search through Americans' phone records was blacked out.
The latest release reflects the administration's strenuous efforts to maintain its legal authority to collect Americans' phone records amid opposition in Congress.
In the new disclosures, some files were declassified ostensibly to show that even when NSA employees collected records improperly or improperly shared material among themselves, those problems were reported to the intelligence court and new procedures were put in place to prevent them from happening again.
