> "We defer to the Justice Department, to whom Senator Wyden's letter is addressed, for comment," the AT&T spokesperson said. "Like all companies, we are required by law to comply with subpoenas, warrants and court orders from government and law enforcement agencies."

Okay, sure. But, are they compelled by law to keep 40 years’ worth of call records, and not only keep them but in an easily indexed manner?

If they aren’t, then clearly there is something going on. Those records probably aren’t that cheap to keep around, compared to not keeping them around. They’re a public company with shareholders; if it were less costly for them to get rid of the records they presumably would have already gotten rid of them, so.. what’s going on?