The CIA reportedly paid AT&T $10 million a year for phone records. Is that legal?

Now it now appears that the CIA -- which, to be clear, is not a domestic law enforcement agency -- may have been giving AT&T as much as $10 million a year in exchange for its customer records. Is this legal?

For one thing, we're talking about the CIA, which is not allowed to spy on US citizens living in the United States. At least that much seems above board in this case -- AT&T doesn't appear to be handing over American phone numbers in full. Under normal circumstances, when a company complies with a data request from the Foreign Intelligence Security Act court, the government must by law reimburse the business for the costs of retrieving and submitting the data. Tech companies such as Microsoft have said they comply with the requests because they have to, not because they get paid for it. But that's not what appears to be happening here. The CIA and AT&T are engaged in what's essentially a business deal, not a court proceeding.