Legal Commentary

Islamic Charity Attorneys Seek $2.26 Mil in Legal Fees in NSA Wiretap Case

By Jeralyn

Via Josh Gerstein at Politico: The lawyers who successfully sued the Government over Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance of the defunct Islamic charity al-Haramain and two of its attorneys have filed a request for $2.26 million in legal fees.

The motion is here. The hourly breakdowns by lawyer (I've removed the names but they are in the pleading) for Dec. 2005 through July, 2010, are:

• Lawyer 1: 2,497.6 hours.
• Lawyer 2: 235.1 hours.
• Lawyer 3: 682.2 hours.
• Lawyer 4: 912.7 hours.
• Lawyer 5: 284.6 hours.
• Lawyer 6: 343.5 hours.
• Lawyer 7: 467.2 hours.
• Lawyer 8: 19.7 hours.

This appears to be in addition to the $612k the plaintiffs asked for in damages back in April (available here.) The Court's March, 2010 ruling finding that the government violated FISA when it intercepted communications related to the Al-Haramain charity is here. [More...]

Reasonable attorneys fees and other investigation and litigation costs pursuant to 50 U.S.C. § 1810©.

The motion also discloses its attempt to settle the case were rebuffed. The Government plans to appeal.

So, who is liable? According to their damage statment:

BARACK H. OBAMA, President of the United States; NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY and KEITH B. ALEXANDER, its Director, in his official capacity; OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL, an office of the United States Treasury, and ADAM J. SZUBIN, its Director, in his official capacity; and FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION and ROBERT S. MUELLER III, its Director, in his official capacity.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).