Wiretapping

The Obama administration on Friday lost its bid to halt a lawsuit charging that President George W. Bush broke the law when he authorized warrantless spying on terrorism suspects, the only such case to make it to federal court. A federal appeals court rejected the Justice Department's bid to halt the lawsuit by a now-defunct Islamic charity over warrantless wiretapping.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) vowed Sunday to clear her name after the revelation of a wiretapped conversation in which she reportedly agreed to intervene in the federal investigation of two pro-Israeli lobbyists in exchange for help getting a coveted congressional post.

The government does not need a search warrant when it taps the phones or checks the e-mails of suspected terrorists who are outside the U.S., even if Americans may be overheard on the calls, a special intelligence court ruled in an opinion released Thursday. The decision confirms what Bush administration officials and some legal experts have long argued. Although the Constitution protects the privacy rights of Americans against "unreasonable searches and seizures," this principle does not bar U.

The FBI has hit a major hang-up in its wiretapping surveillance program: failing to pay its phone bills on time. Facing tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals, a Justice Department audit released Thursday shows. In one office, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000.

In a victory for the Bush administration, the Senate on Thursday blocked legislation that would have cleared the way for lawsuits against phone companies that have cooperated with a warrantless wiretapping program authorized by President Bush. The vote moves the administration closer to its goal of providing retroactive immunity to telephone companies and Internet carriers that are facing multimillion-dollar lawsuits for giving U.S.

Indicted private eye Anthony Pellicano on Monday abruptly dropped his request for a hearing into alleged government misconduct as a federal judge brushed aside eleventh-hour bids to postpone next month's wiretapping trial of Pellicano and five co-defendants. The surprise move by Pellicano came at the outset of a hearing before U.S. District Judge Dale S.

For the last six years, few plots in Hollywood have kept more power brokers and entertainment lawyers in suspense than the FBI investigation into onetime private eye to the stars Anthony Pellicano. With alleged victims including actors Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine and secret grand jury testimony from the likes of super-agent Mike Ovitz and studio executives Brad Grey and Ron Meyer, the case was seen by many as the entertainment industry's biggest scandal in decades.

In his first opportunity to rebut charges that could put him away for life, private eye Anthony Pellicano on Thursday sidestepped the government's allegations that he was the heart and soul of a wiretapping and racketeering ring that empowered celebrities and other well-heeled clients to "discredit and in some cases destroy" their adversaries. Instead, the enigmatic former investigator, acting as his own attorney, told the packed courtroom of U.S. District Judge Dale S.

Tearfully confronting her former boss, a key government witness in the racketeering trial of Anthony Pellicano told a federal jury Wednesday that she feared for her life after telling the FBI and a grand jury about the indicted private investigator's alleged wiretapping and other crimes. "I was shattered. I was so scared . . . about your retaliation," a seemingly terrified Tarita Virtue said to Pellicano, who is acting as his own defense attorney.

Two of Hollywood's most powerful talent agents, Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane, breezed into the trial of private detective Anthony Pellicano on Wednesday for barely 10 minutes total of testimony. "This is going to be boring," Lourd quipped to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom before his five minutes on the stand. In a way, he was right.