No one knows what happened to NSA staffers who snooped on their lovers

Turns out, not even the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee can figure out what’s happened to the National Security Agency (NSA) staffers who were involved in the LOVEINT spying scandal.

Back in August 2013, the Wall Street Journal introduced the world to an internal term that NSA analysts have come up with to describe the act of spying on one’s ex-partner: LOVEINT. The word is reminiscent of existing spycraft parlance like HUMINT (human intelligence) or SIGINT (signals intelligence). (LOVEINT also spawned endless Twitter jokes.)

In a letter sent Monday to the attorney general, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) described how he initially asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to explain what it was doing to address the 12 publicly-known instances of this inappropriate use of NSA surveillance capability. However, the DOJ has stayed mum.