Request denied to unseal AT&T; records in spy case

Media companies lost a bid to unseal documents in a lawsuit accusing AT&T; Inc. of helping the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. residents.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, in a ruling filed in San Francisco federal court, allowed six news organizations to join the lawsuit.

He denied their request to unseal records filed in April in the case, saying the documents weren’t sufficiently related to the legal proceeding.

The documents at issue came from Mark Klein, a retired AT&T; technician. Klein said last year that cables and equipment installed at an AT&T; office in San Francisco in 2003 for the NSA “were tapping into” circuits carrying customers’ dial-in services.