Obama Cell Phone Mishap Prompts Leahy Letter

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wrote to Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich on Monday requesting statistics on the number of prosecutions and/or investigations the Justice Department has undertaken to date pursuant to the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act -- a 2007 statute that Sen Leahy co-sponsored to address the growing number of data breaches involving sensitive phone records. He also asked Friedrich to state whether the agency has found the law effective in protecting Americans' privacy. The Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act amended the federal criminal code to expressly prohibit a telecommunications carrier from obtaining confidential phone records by accessing customer accounts through the Internet, or by fraudulent computer-related activities, without prior authorization.