As Congress debates whether to extend the program or let it expire, revelations that the FBI unlawfully utilized a foreign eavesdropping tool to snoop on almost 20,000 campaign supporters have outraged a prominent Democratic congressman.
According to the Epoch Times, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin shocked many by chastising the FBI for using a crucial surveillance tool improperly during a hearing on Tuesday, saying that "many violations of the constitutional, statutory, and court-imposed restrictions on 702 have come to light"
He went on to say that "these searches have touched all kinds of Americans, such as people named in police homicide records, including victims, next of kin, and witnesses." When the Justice Department itself stated, quote, "There was no specific factual basis to expect the searches would bring up the foreign intelligence," 133 persons were [questioned] during the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration.
According to a recent report from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Section 702 had also been applied to demonstrators and instances involving domestic drug and gang violence.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) grants the FBI and the intelligence community as a whole the right to collect information about foreign intelligence, but only with respect to "[n]on-U.S. persons, [l]ocated abroad, [w]ho are expected to possess, receive, or communicate foreign intelligence information," according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
However, information that the bureau had unlawfully accessed the Section 702 intelligence database 278,000 times surfaced in May. In about 19,000 of them, the subject was a campaign donor; nevertheless, only eight of those questions were within the parameters of a Section 702 investigation.
If Congress don't extend the program before the end of the year, its future is in doubt due to growing bipartisan criticism about Section 702.
According to the Epoch Times, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin shocked many by chastising the FBI for using a crucial surveillance tool improperly during a hearing on Tuesday, saying that "many violations of the constitutional, statutory, and court-imposed restrictions on 702 have come to light"
He went on to say that "these searches have touched all kinds of Americans, such as people named in police homicide records, including victims, next of kin, and witnesses." When the Justice Department itself stated, quote, "There was no specific factual basis to expect the searches would bring up the foreign intelligence," 133 persons were [questioned] during the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration.
According to a recent report from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Section 702 had also been applied to demonstrators and instances involving domestic drug and gang violence.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) grants the FBI and the intelligence community as a whole the right to collect information about foreign intelligence, but only with respect to "[n]on-U.S. persons, [l]ocated abroad, [w]ho are expected to possess, receive, or communicate foreign intelligence information," according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
However, information that the bureau had unlawfully accessed the Section 702 intelligence database 278,000 times surfaced in May. In about 19,000 of them, the subject was a campaign donor; nevertheless, only eight of those questions were within the parameters of a Section 702 investigation.
If Congress don't extend the program before the end of the year, its future is in doubt due to growing bipartisan criticism about Section 702.
