Justice Department seeks permission to hold phone records

The Justice Department has asked a federal court for permission to indefinitely preserve phone records collected by the National Security Agency as it fights lawsuits challenging a secret U.S. surveillance program.

In court papers made public today, Justice Department lawyers asked to retain the records beyond the five years permitted by an order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The government has an obligation to store older records that might prove relevant to lawsuits seeking to halt the data-collection program, the Justice Department lawyers wrote.