US can't access NSA phone records in California terror case

The US government's ability to review and analyze five years' worth of telephone records for the married couple blamed in the deadly shootings in California lapsed just four days earlier when the National Security Agency's controversial mass surveillance program was formally shut down. Under a court order, those historical calling records at the NSA are now off-limits to agents running the FBI terrorism investigation even with a warrant. Instead, under the new USA Freedom Act, authorities were able to obtain roughly two years' worth of calling records directly from the phone companies of the married couple blamed in the attack.

The period covered the entire time that the wife, Tashfeen Malik, lived in the United States, although her husband, Syed Farook, had been here much longer. FBI Director James Comey declined to say whether the NSA program's shutdown affected the government's terrorism investigation in California. "I won't answer, because we don't talk about the investigative techniques we use," Director Comey said. "I'm not going to characterize it."