Grassley: FDA officials OK'd surveillance on groups of doctors wary of medical device safety

The Washington Post: FDA Lawyers Authorized Spying On Agency's Employees, Senator Says
Congressional investigators said Monday that the chief counsel's office at the Food and Drug Administration authorized wide-ranging surveillance of a group of the agency's scientists, the first indication that the effort was sanctioned at the highest levels. In a letter to the FDA, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said that his staff had learned that the spying was "explicitly authorized, in writing" by the agency's top legal office. … The disclosure marked the latest turn in an investigation of the FDA's past efforts to monitor the communications of a group of its doctors who were expressing concerns about the safety of medical devices (Nakashima and Rein, 7/16).