OPINION:
The intelligence community says it has mended its ways. The appearance of contrition is necessary because the law allowing federal agents to scoop up the private communications of American citizens under the guise of protecting us from foreign enemies expires at month’s end.
To keep that from happening, the FBI’s allies have devised a “reform” bill designed to make voting for reauthorization of expiring Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions more palatable. Federal agents cite the law’s Section 702 to justify cloak-and-dagger operations against those accused of being agents of a foreign power.
More accurately, that’s the story you’re supposed to believe. Whistleblower Edward Snowden provided the top-secret documents showing the National Security Agency didn’t care much about legal authority when it created the PRISM and XKeyscore programs, a massive surveillance dragnet plugging directly into the servers at Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants. These tools make every American’s personal information, browsing history and voice chats available from a convenient search interface — no warrant needed.
Critics on both sides of the political aisle complained the expanded post-9/11 surveillance authorities would one day be abused for political ends. In 2016, the prediction came true. The leadership of the FBI and the Department of Justice used false information supplied by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — the notorious Steele dossier — to falsely claim that members of the Trump campaign were foreign agents.
The G-men took those lies and ran with them to open a full-blown investigation. Then-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith doctored an email to falsely portray Trump aide Carter Page as a spy for Russia. These lies were repeated to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges who provided rubber-stamp approval to an unprecedented surveillance effort against a leading presidential campaign.
After Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, the FBI dispatched agent Joe Pientka to spy on Mr. Trump under the false pretense of providing intelligence briefings to the president-elect. After the inauguration, then-FBI Director James Comey took notes on private meetings with President Trump that he then leaked to The New York Times as a means of undermining the new administration.
DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said Mr. Comey “set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees” through his actions, and it’s an example still followed. Special counsel Jack Smith, an ambitious federal prosecutor, is using the snooping tools at his disposal to jail Mr. Trump, the leading threat to President Biden’s 2024 reelection bid.
On Monday, Mr. Smith told a federal court he will call a witness who “reviewed and analyzed data on [Mr. Trump’s] phone … including analyzing images found on the phones and websites visited” while Mr. Trump was president.
Prying into the private musings of a president in this way is an astonishing abuse. The temptation to abuse any domestic intelligence gathering capabilities — not just Section 702 authority — is overwhelming.
Rep. Mike Turner, the Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, authored FISA reform legislation requiring FBI supervisor approval for all warrantless surveillance. As recounted above, however, the top FBI officials were all in on the plot. Mr. Turner’s legislation would accomplish nothing.
That’s why the nation would be better off allowing Section 702 to expire and considering whether it makes sense to ever put such awesome domestic spying capabilities in the hands of an unaccountable few.
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