FBI agents seeking phone records used 'startling' methods

FBI agents seeking telephone records demanded information from phone companies in a variety of "startling" and illicit methods, including e-mail and post-it notes, in an "egregious breakdown" of safeguards and oversight, the Justice Department's inspector general reported Wednesday. The long-awaited investigative report describes numerous lapses by FBI agents seeking material through more than 700 emergency letters to phone service providers between 2002 and 2006, many of which did not involve real urgency, officials said. One FBI agent interviewed in connection with the probe said the process became so casual that "it [was] like having an ATM in your living room," according to the report. The report also describes three FBI media leak investigations in which agents sought and received information for phone numbers belonging to Washington Post and New York Times reporters without the required approval from the attorney general...read more