The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FSIC) accused the FBI of improperly using surveillance powers to search for information on a U.S. senator, a state lawmaker and a state judge.
The violations were revealed in a redacted version of the FISC's 2023 Section 702 certification opinion released Friday by the office of the Director of National Intelligence. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act only permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign people located outside the U.S., with the assistance of electronic communication service providers, to acquire foreign intelligence information.
There have been reports of the FBI abusing Section 702 to search for information on suspects connected to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, and on those involved in the George Floyd protests in 2020.
"In June 2022, an analyst conducted four queries of Section 702 information using the last names of a U.S. Senator and a state senator, without further limitation," the opinion, written by District Judge Rudolph Contreras, stated. "The analyst had information that a specific foreign intelligence service was targeting those legislators, but NSD [National Security division] determined that the querying standard was not satisfied."
The opinion said on Oct. 25, 2022, "a Staff Operations Specialist ran a query using the Social Security number of a state judge who 'had complained to FBI about alleged civil violations perpetrated by a municipal chief of police.'"
The identities of the U.S. senator, state senator and judge were not revealed.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Section 702 is too often used against Americans.
"These disturbing new revelations show how Section 702 surveillance, a spy program the government claims is focused on foreign adversaries, is routinely used against Americans, immigrants, and people who are not accused of any wrongdoing," Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU's National Security Project, said in a statement to The Hill.
Congress must reauthorize Section 702 every four years, and the last reauthorization came in 2018. Section 702 is set to expire on Dec. 31, and it is not known if this report will have any impact on Congress' decision.
Still, the FISC said it found that out of approximately 29,131 Section 702 queries reviewed by the NSD, only 501 (1.7%) were found to be in violation of the querying standard.
"Given recent indications that the FBI is improving its implementation of Section 702 querying requirements, the Court finds that the FBI's querying and minimization procedures, taken as a whole and as likely to be implemented, are consistent with the requirements of the statute and the Fourth Amendment," the opinion stated.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Friday he is pleased with the FISC's findings.
"The 2023 FISC Opinion confirms the significant improvement in the FBI's Section 702 querying compliance since the implementation of our substantial reforms," Wray said. "Section 702 is critical in our fight against foreign adversaries. We take seriously our role in protecting national security and we take just as seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of our Section 702 authorities.
"Compliance is an ongoing endeavor, and we recently announced new additional accountability measures. We will continue to focus on using our Section 702 authorities to protect American lives and keeping our Homeland safe, while safeguarding civil rights and liberties."
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