Snowden NSA Wrinkle

Since Edward Snowden's revelation of NSA snooping on Americans there has been an unexpected absence of objections by defense attorneys (or their mignons in Congress) to potential violations of  the Attorney–client privilege.

The Attorney–client privilege  is a legal concept that protects certain communications between a client and his or her attorney and keeps those communications confidential.

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Until July 8, 2013:
NSA Monitoring Fears Surface In bin Laden’s Son-in-Law's case 


NEW YORK (AP) - Claims by a lawyer for Osama bin Laden's son-in-law that the defense team in his terrorism case needs protection from "willy-nilly" eavesdropping by the government were promptly rejected Monday by a judge who said there was no evidence of it.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said "not a shred of evidence" had been offered to support the defense's claim in the case against Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. ...

Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. Cronan assured Kaplan that no investigators were spying on defense phone and Internet communications.

"Let me be perfectly clear," Cronan said. "The prosecution team has had absolutely no exposure whatsoever to any privileged communications."

In court papers, [emphasis mine] the government said the section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that matters in the defense request cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States, including Abu Ghaith's lawyers.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.