Andrew Napolitano on the How the Feds Illegally Obtain Evidence and Lie About It
Among the more nefarious procedures the feds have engaged in is something called "parallel reconstruction." This procedure seeks to hide the true and original source of information about a criminal defendant when it was obtained unlawfully. For example, if the National Security Agency (NSA), while listening to the conversations of Americans hoping to hear about terrorist plots, comes across evidence of a bank robbery, the NSA will pass that evidence on to the Department of Justice. Then lawyers and agents concoct an explanation as to how the Justice Department came upon the evidence that carefully omits the mention of domestic spying.
This, of course, is criminal, writes Andrew Napolitano. Lawyers and agents for the NSA and DOJ may no more lawfully lie to federal judges and criminal defense attorneys about the true origins of evidence than may a bank robber who testifies in his own defense claiming to have been at Mass at the time of the robbery.
