Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
The FBI had the phone records illegally, never obtaining a court order.
|
While I must agree with the need to maintain at least the appearance of legality in police actions of any kind, I am also hard-pressed to state that what is known as the result of such can simply be ignored as if the wrong of the means of having the information makes the facts in the information OK.
That just stinks.
And I think that an administration has to act based on what is known without giving the means of knowledge any material sway in the inquiry.
But in terms of prosecution, there has to remain a limit to use of illegally-obtained information, and reasonable prosecution of those who knowingly use such illegal means to get information. Otherwise there is too much incentive to get the information any way possible despite the law.
So if you have the information and it is true, you have to act on it in every way except in a court of law. So for the media to characterize something as a felony using illegally obtained information is not necessarily barred by any law. But then that presumes that the characterization itself is more than just a claim of what someone thinks ought to be without due deference to the actual laws that would apply. (And I am not weighing-in on the correctness of any particular claim.)
But simply saying that the information was illegally obtained does not absolve guilt. Just potentially bars prosecution.
I would rather be on the side where the actions in question are righteous so that any unrighteous digging by others will only find nothing.