Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
The FBI’s quest for foreign intelligence took the form of frequent misuse of a surveillance tool in investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as well as social justice protests during mid-to-late 2020.
As first reported by The Hill, a recently unsealed document from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the body which holds legal authority over the U.S. government’s espionage activities, the FBI violated Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act thousands of times in a relatively short window.
Section 702 allows the government to surveil the communications between specific individuals outside of the United States, but the agency routinely used its surveillance efforts to collect intelligence about people from very much inside this country.
The agency is allowed to access its surveillance database only if it has a legitimate foreign intelligence need or is investigating a specific crime.
The heavily redacted court document does not provide much insight into how the agency framed its argument, but it is known that the FBI often justified its domestic surveillance by claiming it was done as a means of collecting foreign intelligence.
On one occasion, the agency searched for information about an individual it believes was at the Capitol riot, a move the court decried as lacking any “analytical, investigative or evidentiary” purpose.
“[FBI agents] are lying to courts,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said during an appearance on Fox Business. “They’re lying to the American people.”
Sen. Hawley is calling for a thorough, top-to-bottom housecleaning of the FBI.
“[FBI agents] are lying to courts. They’re lying to the American people.” pic.twitter.com/gWOonzlA43
— Senator Hawley Press Office (@SenHawleyPress) May 19, 2023
Hawley is among the conservatives calling for substantive FBI reform.
This marks the second stinging report to emerge about the FBI in a week. The agency was already in the proverbial hot seat, at least with the Republicans, in the wake of the Durham report, in which the special investigator after whom the report was named found the FBI “failed to uphold the mission of strict fidelity to the law” in its investigation into Russiagate.
“1—Durham confirmed the FBI had no basis for its now-debunked collusion accusation of Trump’s campaign,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) tweeted. “2—The FBI willfully ignored evidence and an FBI lawyer knowingly made misrepresentations to the FISA court to obtain a warrant on a US citizen. Don’t let the media bury this.”
1—Durham confirmed the FBI had no basis for its now-debunked collusion accusation of Trump's campaign.
2—The FBI willfully ignored evidence and an FBI lawyer knowingly made misrepresentations to the FISA court to obtain a warrant on a US citizen.
Don't let the media bury this. pic.twitter.com/uoyGd7WPcf
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) May 17, 2023
According to The Hill’s report, the FBI has blamed most of the violations on employees failing to understand the nuance of 702. The agency has also argued that it made robust changes to reign in the violations.