Debunking Republican Spin on Fake Telecom Immunity "Compromise" in Today's NYT

The Republicans have yielded somewhat on immunity for the companies: The current proposal from Mr. Bond would allow the FISA court to review the administration’s requests and determine by a “preponderance of the evidence” whether the requests were valid.

Lichtblau's article inaccurately describes the current GOP "compromise" bill with regard to telecom amnesty. It does not, as the article claims, "allow the FISA court to review the administration’s requests and determine by a 'preponderance of the evidence' whether the requests [from the Government to the telecoms to allow spying] were valid." Rather, the "compromise" bill simply says that if the telecoms can show that the Government requested that telecoms allow warrantless eavesdropping and represented that such warrantless spying was legal -- and we already know that that happened -- then the FISA court is required to immunize the telecoms.