A senior administration official has said some of the surveillance documents released by US intelligence officials were made public in response to a lawsuit.
The official said yesterday, other documents were released voluntarily. The National Security Agency declassified three secret court opinions showing how it collected as many as 56,000 emails and other communications by Americans not connected to terrorism annually over three years.
Intelligence officials told reporters the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, determined the documents should be released to shed light on the NSA's surveillance programs.
The suit was filed by the privacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation. Clapper's office had no immediate comment on the court case.
The official was not authorised to discuss the release with a reporter by name, and spoke on condition of anonymity.
