Opinion ID: 344532
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: requirement of oath or affirmation

Text: Section 2518(1) provides that 17 Each application for an order authorizing or approving the interception of a wire or oral communication shall be made in writing upon oath or affirmation to a judge of competent jurisdiction . . . 18 The application for the wiretap here is signed and sworn to by a United States Attorney. Accompanying the application and specifically incorporated by reference therein is the affidavit of Special Agent Morello. Morello's affidavit specifically refers to and incorporates an affidavit by Special Agent Harold S. Harrison, Jr. for the apparent purpose of complying with the provisions of Section 2518(1)(e) requiring a full statement about previous applications for the intercept of communications of the same person. Harrison's statement, however, while attached to the Morello and Long affidavits, is itself unsigned and unsworn. It is for this reason that appellant claims that the application itself is not upon oath or affirmation as required by the statute. We find this claim to be wholly without merit. The application itself was properly signed and sworn to by a properly authorized United States Attorney before a United States District Judge. Because that application specifically incorporates both the Morello and Harrison statements, it is in our view immaterial whether the latter were also made upon oath or affirmation. We see no difference between this method and the incorporation of the same facts as hearsay in the application itself. Harrison's status as a Special Agent for the F.B.I. confers sufficient indicia of reliability to warrant the inference that the hearsay evidence was credible.