Mullin Denies President's Claim Congress Was Briefed On Phone Surveillance

Markwayne Mullin said in a statement Saturday that comments that he and his colleagues knew of the surveillance "is absolutely false."

Saturday, June 8th 2013, 2:22 pm

By: News On 6

Mullin Denies President's Claim Congress Was Briefed On Phone Surveillance

Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma is denying that he was ever briefed on cell phone and Internet surveillance by the National Security Agency that sweeps up an estimated 3 billion phone calls a day and collects Internet data from U.S. providers in an attempt to stop terror attacks.

Mullin said in a statement Saturday that comments that he and his colleagues in Congress knew of the surveillance "is absolutely false."

President Barack Obama said Friday that "every member of Congress" was briefed on the spy programs.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said a court reviews the program that collects Americans' phone records every three months. Some members of Congress are promising to change the phone records program -- which Congress voted to authorize.

In the Senate, Rand Paul (R-Ken.) has introduced legislation that would require a warrant before any government agency could search the phone records of Americans.

Responding to the furor over the disclosure of the National Security Agency program, Paul said the bill introduced Friday is intended to stop the NSA from spying on U.S. citizens.