Philadelphia, PA: A wiretap class action lawsuit has been filed against Verizon Communications and the federal government over the collection of millions of Verizon' customer phone records by the National Security Agency, (NSA).
Filed by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, and Charles and Mary Strange, the lawsuit names President Obama, US Attorney General Eric Holder, the director of the NSA, the NSA, the CEO of Verizon, the US Department of Justice, and Judge Roger Vinson of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as defendants. Judge Vinson is named as a defendant because he signed the secret order directing Verizon to turn over all phone records "on an ongoing daily basis."
According to the lawsuit, this constituted an "outrageous breach of privacy"and a violation of Verizon users' "reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and due process rights." The wiretap lawsuit challenges the legality of the NSA' "secret and illegal government scheme to intercept and analyze vast quantities of domestic telephone communications."
The potential class action lawsuit, entitled Klayman, et al. v. Barrack Hussein Obama II, et al., Case No. 13-cv-00851, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks to represent a class of American citizens in the United States and overseas who are either curren or previous Verizon customers, including, but not limited to customers between April 25, 2013 and July 19, 2013.
The class is seeking a cease-and-desist order to prohibit the collection of Verizon customers' phone records and more than $3 billion in damages and attorney fees. Plaintiffs are represented by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch Inc.
