Lawmakers demand broad disclosure of alleged Yahoo surveillance scheme

A bipartisan group of House members said Thursday that an offer by intelligence officials to brief a select group in Congress on an alleged surveillance program involving Yahoo Mail was not good enough, and called for details of the program to be made available to all members.

The letter, addressed to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, called for a briefing on alleged surveillance of Yahoo Mail users. Law enforcement officials sent a letter to lawmakers this month stating they would provide the information to just two committees.

"The response refers to a briefing provided to the staffs of the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, but it does not address our request that a briefing be provided for all members of Congress," noted the letter, which was led by Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu and Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash and cosigned by a bipartisan group of colleagues.

"While it is important for committee staff to have accurate information about government operations, this staff briefing cannot resolve a request from 48 members of the United States Congress that the administration provide all members of Congress a briefing," they added.

Yahoo allegedly assisted the feds with a 2015 surveillance request by writing specialized software that helped sift through all of the emails sent or received by its users. The program was reportedly authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, though details are unclear.

Lawmakers first demanded details on the program in an Oct. 14 letter, but were rebuffed by intelligence officials just days later. It is the first known instance of a company helping the federal government under FISA, which is aimed at authorizing surveillance in situations where law enforcement officials believe public disclosure could jeopardize an investigation.