The National Journal is reporting that the Obama Administration has asked for permission to hang on to phone records collected by the NSA for longer than the five-year limit because they are considered "evidence" in the privacy lawsuits currently leveled against the agency.

The motion filed in the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court states the government's "Preservation Obligations:"

When litigation is pending against a party (or reasonably anticipated), that party has a duty to preserve -- that is, to identify, locate, and maintain -- relevant information that may be evidence in the case.

To meet this obligation, the Government seeks an order that would allow the NSA to retain the BR metadata for non-analytic purposes until relieved of its preservation obligations.

The ACLU's deputy legal director is in "dismay" over this and told NJ that:

This is just a distraction. We don't have any objection to the government deleting these records. While they are at it, they should delete the whole database.

Here is the court filing.