Senate Provision on Phone Record Data Collection is Pure Grift

The United States Senate appears poised to push back against an effort by the House of Representatives to repeal a provision hidden in the bill that reopened the government, which allows U.S. Senators to sue the federal government for potentially millions of dollars over the Justice Department’s seizure of their phone records.

“If Senators believe that they have been harmed by an act of the United States, they can seek any available remedy under the Federal Tort Claims Act on the same terms as any other person,” said Rupa Bhattacharyya, advisory committee member of Justice Connection who handled tort claims for 12 years in both the administrative claims process and in federal court litigation. “This favorable treatment available only to a handful of individuals is inequitable, unjust, and blatant self-dealing.”

The provision was added in response to steps DOJ took to investigate President Trump’s alleged attempt to subvert the results of the 2020 election, and applies retroactively to any data acquisition occurring on or after January 1, 2022. No allegation of illegal conduct has been established with regard to the evidence collection, which was authorized by a federal grand jury