The court order also says that an FBI analyst ran 13 queries of people suspected of being involved in the Capitol riot to determine if they had any foreign ties, but the Justice Department later determined that the searches were not likely to find foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime. Officials obtained the information despite it not having any “analytical, investigative or evidentiary purpose,” the order said. The April 2022 order, for instances, details how the FBI queried the Section 702 repository using the name of someone who was believed to have been at the Capitol during the Jan. In repeated episodes disclosed Friday, the FBI's own standards were not followed. The issue has flared as the Republican-led House has been targeting the FBI, creating a committee to investigate the “weaponization” of government. But congressional critics of the program have long raised alarm about what they say are unjustified searches of the database for information about Americans, along with more general concerns about perceived abuses of surveillance.Ĭoncerns about the program have aligned staunch liberal defenders of civil liberties with supporters of former President Donald Trump who have seized on FBI surveillance errors during an investigation into his 2016 campaign. FBI searches must have a foreign intelligence purpose or be aimed at finding evidence of a crime. The program creates a database of intelligence that U.S. That program expires at the end of the year unless it is renewed. It’s clear the FBI can’t be left to police itself.”Īt issue are improper queries of foreign intelligence information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which enables the government to gather the communications of targeted foreigners outside the U.S. "These unlawful searches undermine our core constitutional rights and threaten the bedrock of our democracy. “Today’s disclosures underscore the need for Congress to rein in the FBI’s egregious abuses of this law, including warrantless searches using the names of people who donated to a congressional candidate,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU's National Security Project. Join our hosts as they take you in and out of courtrooms in the U.S. Members of Congress received the order when it was issued last year.Ĭourthouse News’ podcast Sidebar tackles the stories you need to know from the legal world. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a redacted version on Friday in what officials said was the interest of transparency. The violations were detailed in a secret court order issued last year by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has legal oversight of the U.S. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and Justice Department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that law enforcement officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime. Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a heavily blacked-out court order released Friday.įBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the Jan.
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