When, likely many years even decades in the future, a comprehensive history of national security letters (NSLs) is finally compiled, the damage they’ve done to American liberties will be far better understood than it is today. When that history is written, the testimony of Nick Merrill, an early victim of NSLs who was just recently able to finally tell his story on Democracy Now!, will be seen as a tipping point.
I don’t know if I’m allowed to, for some reason, say the exact day. It was in February 2004. An FBI agent visited my office. He brought me a letter. You know, he badged himself. He identified himself as an agent. He gave me this letter. I opened it. I read it in his presence.
And a few things kind of leaped out at me upon first reading the letter, one of which was that I was commanded to never tell anyone—anyone—about the letter, not that I had received it, not that there had been a request for information. It was very broad, and there was no exceptions in there. There was no instructions on how to appeal. There was nothing about contacting a lawyer. So I said to the agent at that time, “It says here I can’t tell anyone about this. Does that include my attorneys? Does that include my business partners?” And the man said something to the effect of, “I’ve just been given the job of bringing you this letter. I don’t know. I’m not a decision maker.” And that was basically the end of our conversation. Then he left.
At that point, I was left with this letter, which asked for what I believe to be constitutionally protected information belonging to one of my clients.
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