The FBI’s use of a controversial foreign surveillance authority to investigate potential ties between Black Lives Matter protesters and terrorists has been revealed in recently declassified reports. The disclosure of this information is likely to complicate the debate on Capitol Hill regarding the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a surveillance tool set to expire at the end of the year.
According to a memorandum order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the FBI conducted a “batch query” in 2020 on 133 individuals who were arrested in connection with civil unrest and protests between May and June. The names were searched using Section 702 authorities, which allow surveillance of electronic communications by foreign individuals outside the United States for national security purposes. However, the data collected also contained information about American citizens involved in these communications.
The debate over renewing Section 702 has been contentious, with concerns raised by members of Congress on both sides about potential abuse of authority and violations of privacy rights. The government argues that Section 702 is crucial for national security and has been effective in preventing terrorist activities and cyberattacks.
The memorandum revealed that the FBI conducted the queries on the arrested individuals to determine if there was any counter-terrorism information associated with them. However, there was no specific indication of potential connections to terrorist-related activities known at the time. The FBI attributed this query to a lack of understanding on the part of the person who ran it, and remedial training was provided afterward.
The recent reports highlight instances of the intelligence community misusing FISA Section 702 authorities, based on data from 2020 and 2021, prior to internal reforms made by the FBI. FBI Director Christopher Wray implemented numerous recommendations to enhance compliance, as detailed in an audit report that showed a decrease in the misuse of FISA Section 702 authorities.
Additionally, court records indicated that FISA data was used by the FBI to query 19,000 donors involved in a congressional campaign in 2020. A senior Department of Justice official clarified that the candidate in question did not win the election and ran against an incumbent. It was previously revealed that Section 702 was also used to investigate Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.).
Furthermore, the court documents revealed that FISA data was employed in the investigation of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol to assess possible foreign influence.
Rebecca Richards, chief of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency Office, confirmed that classified versions of the opinions were provided to Congress last year. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) emphasized the need for robust measures to ensure responsible and rigorous searches of the Bureau’s Section 702 databases in any bipartisan reauthorization of FISA Section 702.
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