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On Monday, the Netherlands' first official state-run Internet service provider,

Feb. 18, 2018 by Catherine Pope

On Monday, the Netherlands' first official state-run Internet service provider, Nettee, announced that it had joined the fight against illegal wiretapping . The company noted in a statement that it has seen no evidence of wrongdoing on its part in the investigation.

A Dutch prosecutor recently announced that he had launched an investigation into the Dutch' use of its state-owned telecom network to eavesdrop on calls received by Dutch citizens during the campaign. "The Dutch government has an obligation to ensure that its citizens have access to the Internet, to protect their privacy and to avoid unnecessary surveillance," the statement reads. "But we must also take the necessary measures to prevent any violations of our laws."The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the government's request for a temporary restraining order to block the release of records belonging to a top Republican presidential candidate.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday halted the release of the records. The case was brought by former Florida state Rep. Bob Riley and former Florida congresswoman, Marlon Brando, who filed the brief in support of the candidate's challengers, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

The court held that the government has failed to prove that the records are confidential and that the request is not a violation of the FOIA. The court also ruled that the government has no legal obligation to release records that it cannot identify because they are public records.

The records were provided to the New York Times by Republican nominee Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. The Times obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act request.

"The plaintiffs' actions are unlawful and capricious," said the court in ruling in Brando's favor.

"The United States has used taxpayer funds to shield the Republican Party from the public's right to know regarding its financial relationships with foreign governments," the court said. "A government that spends millions of dollars a year to conceal or hide its financial interests has the right to withhold such documents from the public. It may be difficult to imagine that the president could withhold documents that the public cannot know because they are private.

"The court finds the plaintiffs' actions unconstitutional under the First Amendment because they violate a fundamental right of the people to know and may not reveal such documents," the court said.

The Trump campaign released several records from 2013 to 2016, including the number of people it received money from from the IRS under a 2009 law called