Global Courant 2023-04-27 22:48:53
Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, argued Thursday that the FBI should no longer play a role in investigating U.S. citizens who are flagged during investigations of non-U.S. citizens, in light of evidence that a significant portion of these FBI “questions” are asked in error.
The Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Oversight held a hearing on how to resolve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and how this law “which is designed to protect Americans has been weaponized against them”.
Section 702 of FISA allows the government to conduct targeted surveillance of non-U.S. persons who are abroad to obtain foreign intelligence information. When U.S. citizens are flagged as part of these investigations, the FBI takes over the process of questioning for possible security reasons.
However, both Republicans and Democrats used the hearing to note that these FBI questions have become a problem. Ranking member Jerry Nadler, DN.Y., for example, said the FBI used “personal identifiers” to question U.S. citizens “nearly 3.4 million times” last year alone, while other lawmakers pointed out that up to 30% of those questions were performed “incorrectly”.
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Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, R-Ohio. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Nadler also said that U.S. intelligence agencies “have kept us largely in the dark about the number of U.S. messages collected incidentally each year,” and warned that collecting that data “should give everyone food for thought.”
“They are made available to agencies like the FBI, which can search the 702 database for our communications for purposes unrelated to national security,” Nadler said, adding that these searches are “neither hypothetical nor infrequent.”
At the subcommittee hearing, Jordan questioned Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and other witnesses about how many Americans have been questioned as part of 702 investigations of non-U.S. citizens, but said they had no answer.
“And then about 10,000 Justice Department people have the ability to search this database of incidental collections for no probable reason at all,” Jordan said. “And we know, as Ranking Member Nadler said earlier, there were 3.4 million searches in this database and 30% of those were wrong.”
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House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, DN.Y. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Jordan said a “simple” solution would be to have “probable cause if you’re going to search this database on U.S. citizens,” something witness Sharon Franklin, the chair of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, said she supported .
“What if we just take the FBI out of the business altogether — what if the FBI can’t search this database?” Jordan asked. “If the FBI can’t search this database of American citizens?”
Jordan has not specifically proposed an alternate entity for vetting questions to US citizens, nor have witnesses offered ideas. Another witness, Beth Williams, a member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, warned that an agency with authority to look into Americans would still be needed.
“The question is, if the FBI doesn’t do these searches to find out who in the US is talking to terrorists abroad, who is going to do it?” Williams asked. She warned that there is a “risk” that the CIA or NSA “looks outwardly at Americans.”
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Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Jordan stressed that the question of how 702 investigations can turn into questions about U.S. citizens needs to be cleaned up as Congress considers extending 702 authority after it expires this year.
“702 needs to be reauthorized — this is probably the most important thing we’re going to do this Congress,” Jordan said. “Do this right – and don’t let this continue with the data you all understand.”
“That’s our focus, should be our focus, and the fact that I think we can get a bipartisan agreement here about protecting those freedoms,” he added.
In December 2022, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a 2021 report detailing FISA abuses. The report said the FBI searched records under Section 702 for an unnamed member of Congress and local political organizations to determine if they had ties to foreign intelligence agencies.
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Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
At a House Intelligence Committee hearing earlier this year, Rep. Darin LaHood that he believed he was the unnamed legislator being illegally questioned by the FBI.
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FISA reform became a priority for both Republicans and Democrats after a 2019 review of Horowitz. That review found significant inaccuracies and omissions by the FBI in a FISA application to oversee former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016, and has since proposed major reforms to FISA Section 702.
Brooke Singman is a digital political reporter for Fox News. You can reach her at [email protected] or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
