WASHINGTON (CN) - A conservative legal advocacy group on Wednesday sued the National Security Agency and the office of the Director of National Intelligence in federal court for information about agency procedures guiding the handling of raw signals intelligence.
The American Center for Law and Justice, which describes itself in the April 12 complaint as an organization dedicated to the defense of constitutional liberties, had asked the intelligence agencies for the information to shed more light on what it claims was improper unmasking of Trump campaign associates by the Obama administration.
The group alleges that both agencies, which are named as defendants in the lawsuit, have failed to adequately respond to its Feb. 24 FOIA requests.
During an interview with the New York Times on April 5, President Trump deepened the imbroglio over the unmasking when he accused former national security adviser Susan Rice - without any supporting evidence - of having committed a crime by revealing the identities of Trump campaign associates.
Rice has since publicly denied any wrongdoing, but the allegations further stoked a far-right narrative that a shadow government, or the deep state, is actively working to undermine the Trump presidency.
The American Center for Law and Justice echoed that narrative in a press release it referred Courthouse News to after declining to comment directly on the 10-page Washington lawsuit.
The group claims that deep state operatives embedded throughout the bureaucracy, what it calls the shadow government, are leaking selective information for political purposes at an alarming rate.
"This week we have taken our most significant legal action yet to hold bad actors accountable – including going to federal court – and to shed light on the motivations behind the abuse of the intelligence gathering power and the coordinated leaking of classified information," the press release states.
The group’s website allows visitors to sign a petition to stop the shadow government, which has garnered more than 161,000 signatures.
Washington-based national security attorney Mark Zaid said that he supports the group's effort to push the government to release the information, but questions its motives.
"There is a statutory right under FOIA to gain access to records that shows what our government is up to, and use of that right is at its height when there are concerns of governmental wrong doing," he said in a phone interview.
"That said, the underlying allegations that the group is promoting appear to be nothing more than conspiracy-laden allegations that have no basis in fact or law," he added.
The group first sought the records after Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, went to the White House to brief the president after telling reporters on Capitol Hill about Obama-era intelligence intercepts that had unmasked the identities of Trump campaign associates.
The move threw the House Intelligence investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election into chaos, and sparked calls for Nunes to step down from his role in leading the inquiry.
Trump said later that he felt the intelligence reports somewhat vindicated claims he made on March 4 in a series of four Tweets that the Obama administration had wire tapped Trump Tower during the campaign.