Secret Court's Judges Warned NSA Spy May Have Led Improperly to Warrants .... assured by administration officials it would never happen.

Secret Court's Judges Were Warned About NSA Spy Data: "By Carol D. Leonnig | Washington Post Staff Writer | Thursday, February 9, 2006; Page A01

Program May Have Led Improperly to Warrants

Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the court, according to two sources with knowledge of those events.

The revelations infuriated U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- who, like her predecessor, Royce C. Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no information obtained this way be used to gain warrants from their court, according to government sources, and both had been assured by administration officials it would never happen. ...