FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday issued another plea for U.S. lawmakers to approve a continuance of a key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) provision without any changes.
Section 702 is a key provision of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the U.S., with the compelled assistance of electronic communication service providers, to acquire intelligence information.
While it allows spying on communications belonging to foreigners outside of the U.S., the feds also obtain phone calls, texts, and emails of U.S. persons. The information is stored in massive databases that the FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency (NSA) can search without a warrant.
The key 702 provision will expire Dec. 31 unless Congress takes action to reauthorize it.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers last week introduced the bicameral Government Surveillance Reform Act to reauthorize Section 702 with new protections for constitutional rights.
The legislation includes warrant requirements, with some exceptions, for surveilling U.S. persons' communications, location, vehicle data, web browsing history, and search records.
The proposed reforms came after a partially redacted court ruling found that the FBI conducted inappropriate searches in 2022, including by using the names of a U.S. Senator and a state senator and a judge's Social Security number.
"I can tell you it would be absolutely devastating if the next time an adversary like Iran or China launches a major cyberattack, we don’t see it coming because 702 was allowed to lapse,” Wray said in his opening statement before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence.
"Or, with the fast-moving situation in the Middle East, just imagine if some foreign terrorist organization overseas, shifts its intentions and directs an operative here with a contingency plan to carry out an attack in our own backyard. And imagine if we are not able to disrupt the threat because the FBI’s 702 authorities have been so watered down."
Wray specifically address the proposed requirement for warrants.
"A warrant requirement would amount to a de facto ban, because query applications either would not meet the legal standard to win court approval or because, when the standard could be met, it would be so only after the expenditure of scarce resources, the submission and review of a lengthy legal filing, and the passage of significant time — which, in the world of rapidly evolving threats, the government often does not have," Wray said.
In addressing the FBI's earlier abuses of Section 702 to spy on protesters, elected officials, and campaign donors, Wray said the bureau "responded rigorously" to these violations and 702 searches on U.S. persons have already been reduced "dramatically."
"To be sure, no one more deeply shares Members' concerns regarding past FBI compliance violations related to FISA, including the rules for querying Section 702 collection using US person identifiers, than I do," Wray said, The Register reported.
The FBI "responded rigorously" to these violations, he added, and that "dramatically" reduced the 702 searches on U.S. persons.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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