Although both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder definitively termed warrantless wiretapping against Americans to be illegal before they took office, now that they are in a position of executing the program they refuse to declare the program illegal. Indeed, even under repeated questioning Attorney General Holder refuses to use the word “illegal” to describe such practices.

During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, June 17, 2009, Russ Feingold (D-WI) criticizes Attorney General Eric Holder, for refusing to declare that the warrantless wiretapping program started under the Bush administration is against the law.