“Incredibly Juicy Targets” – Sen. Wyden Reveals Surveillance of Senate Phone Lines

​ Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) informed his Senate colleagues Wednesday that “until recently, Senators have been kept in the dark about executive branch surveillance of Senate phones.”
 
AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile failed to meet contractual obligations to disclose such surveillance with the Senate Sergeant at Arms. Sen. Wyden wrote in a letter to his colleagues that their campaign and personal phones, on which official business can be conducted under Senate rules, are not covered by this provision. He called these phones “incredibly juicy targets.”
 
Senate Wyden recommended that his colleagues switch their campaign and personal phones to providers willing to make such disclosures.
 
The purpose of such surveillance might be to protect senators from cyber threats and foreign intelligence, but this is far from clear.
 
For example, Sen. Wyden outlined two breaches that occurred last year, one foreign and one domestic. In the Salt Typhoon hack, Chinese intelligence intercepted the communications of specific senators and their senior staff. The other breach came from the U.S. Department of Justice, which conducted a leak investigation by collecting phone records of Senate staff, including national security advisors to leadership, as well as staff from the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Democrats and Republicans were targeted in equal numbers. Sen. Wyden wrote:
 
“Together, these incidents highlight the vulnerability of Senate communications to foreign adversaries, but also to surveillance by federal, state, and local law enforcement. Executive branch surveillance poses a significant threat to the Senate’s independence and the foundational principle of separation of powers … This kind of unchecked surveillance can chill critical oversight activities, undermine confidential communications essential for legislative deliberations, and ultimately erode the legislative branch’s co-equal status.”
 
Perhaps we have, as Elvis sang, suspicious minds. But we find it odd that three major telecoms would all fail to meet their disclosure obligations in a contract with the U.S. Senate unless they were encouraged to do so.

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