Whether you're deliberately trying to make the argument or not, you're wrong - this isn't some purely criminal justice problem that the NSA is wholly unrelated

Whether you're deliberately trying to make the argument or not, you're wrong - this isn't some purely criminal justice problem that the NSA is wholly unrelated to. The very problems with evidence collection and prosecution you acknowledge set up the central danger of adding NSA surveillance to the mix - what protections we have left when it comes to LEOs and prosecutors get even weaker as you allow a major way around them, as is terribly obvious. No, the NSA can't drop their findings into a case - that's in TFA. What they can do is essentially the same as a cop breaking into someone's house, hunting around until he finds evidence of any crime, then sneaking out and using what he learned to find the usable-in-court evidence to build a case against that person. Except instead of the cop doing the dirty work himself, we've got an unaccountable federal agency targeting people under whatever criteria they please and snooping on those people.