The legal department at Google fired off a letter to the federal government Tuesday asking for permission to make public data about national security requests.

The letter comes after articles in the Guardian and the Washington Post reported on a National Security Agency program code-named PRISM saying it gave the government access to servers at Internet companies, including Google. Several other Silicon Valley companies were also listed including Yahoo, Facebook, and Apple.

Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Apple all denied playing a role in PRISM.

The letter (posted below) was written to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller. Mountain View-based Google is trying to defute reports that it has created a way for the NSA to have access through PRISM.

"Google's numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made,'' David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote. "Google has nothing to hide.''

Google insists it hasn't been handing over user data on a broad scale, something the company believes it can prove if it receives clearance to disclose the number of requests that have been submitted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Right now, Google is barred from talking about it publicly.

The letter turns the burden of facts back on the government to be more clear about the companies’ role.

Here's the letter: