> For a criminal trial, a specific law must be broken.
Perjury. I don't understand the subtleties of this law, but my ordinary man interpretation is telling me that if you are a government official, you are allowed to lie under oath in a court, with no repercussions.
Quoting Wikipedia,
Wyden then asked Director Clapper, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" He responded, "No, sir." Wyden asked "It does not."[31] and Clapper said "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertantly perhaps collect, but not wittingly."