LOS ANGELES (TIP): For the first time in the US, a man convicted on terror charges has asked authorities for documents obtained by the NSA to try to reverse his conviction, a document obtained has showed. Mohamed Osman Mohamud was convicted last year of trying to use a weapon of mass destruction at a Christmas tree lighting in Oregon in 2010.

The former student was ensnared, his attorneys say, in an FBI sting. It later emerged police used information collected by the NSA in its massive cybersnooping operation. Mohamud was not informed of the snooping, they added. “The record reflects that government actors failed to communicate discoverable material to local prosecutors,” argued his lawyers in an appeal filed in Portland.