Callum

FACTS

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) suspected defendants Barnes and Henderson of participating in a drug trafficking ring in Northern California. After unsuccessfully exhausting conventional investigative techniques, DEA agents 4420 UNITED STATES v. CALLUM and Jeffrey Cole, the Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) supervising the investigation, decided to ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) for authorization to apply for court orders permitting oral, wire and electronic surveillance. The AUSA started the process in August of 1998 by request- ing authorization to bug Barnes’s office. He received a DOJ authorization letter and presented it along with a wiretap application to a district judge, who signed an order authoriz- ing the wiretap. The AUSA added phone and pager taps for Barnes in September, and taps on Henderson’s cell phone and pager in October. The government’s surveillance efforts proved successful, and defendants were indicted for conspir- acy to distribute cocaine.

Defendants challenged the validity of the wiretap applica- tions and court orders, contending that (1) the documents were facially insufficient because they didn’t identify who…