Justice Dept: Sen Wyden misunderstanding law in fight over secret cyber memo

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) made “wholly erroneous” claims to a federal court “based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the law,” the Department of Justice claimed as a standoff rages over a 13-year-old legal opinion. In March, Sen Wyden accused the DOJ of making a “key assertion which is inaccurate” as part of a legal fight over whether to release the 2003 opinion. On May 3, the Obama Administration struck back. Not only is the DOJ in the right, lawyers claimed in a new filing, but it is Sen Wyden whose argument is misguided. “The senator’s claim of inaccuracy is based not on any inaccurate or incomplete facts, but rather on a fundamental misunderstanding of the ‘working law’ doctrine,” claimed the US attorney for the southern district of New York.