OPINION:
Congress is once again considering the wisdom of allowing government officials to spy on citizens without a warrant. Authorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expires next week, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, appears to be fast-tracking renewal over the objection of conservatives — and a few liberals.
The annual dispute highlights a divide that doesn’t line up neatly with the usual partisan categories. Boosters of the national security establishment and military-industrial complex are eager to get the FISA renewal done so they can move on to sending an added $60 billion in taxpayer dollars to Ukraine, on top of the $74 billion already dispatched.
Against this crowd, all but two House Judiciary Committee members voted in December to recommend the full House adopt the End Warrantless Surveillance Act. This includes the panel’s chairman, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, and the top Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York.
Their modest proposal shouldn’t be controversial; it prohibits federal agents from sidestepping the Constitution by buying private data about Americans from third parties. It would also tell G-men they need to get a warrant based on probable cause before querying the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance database and perusing the communications of a “United States person.”
Queries of this sort aren’t rare. The FBI conducted 1.3 million searches on Americans in 2020, rising to 3.4 million the following year, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
If what’s happening is legitimate, a warrant isn’t a high bar given the willingness of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges to rubber-stamp whatever a government representative brings to their attention. This compliant court did nothing to sanction the FBI or its agents after they deceived the court, falsifying information to unjustly label Carter Page an “agent of a foreign power.”
Mr. Page was a campaign volunteer for Donald Trump at the time, but partisan FBI executives leaked the existence of a surveillance warrant to the media to spread the fiction that Mr. Trump was under Russian influence. This lie, orchestrated by the Hillary Clinton campaign, took on new life when partisan actors abused the awesome powers of the national security establishment to make it appear true.
Never forget that 50 senior intelligence officials — including five former CIA directors — signed a duplicitous letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation in an effort to salvage Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. This demonstrates the willingness of those in charge of the national security establishment to wield their titles and tradecraft to achieve personal ends.
Such vicious actors ought not to be rewarded with blanket renewal of wiretapping powers. Mr. Johnson is reportedly mulling options like passing a clean extension and bringing up the House Judiciary Committee’s reforms as a free-standing measure. While presented as a compromise, this would be an empty gesture, as true reform wouldn’t get past either the Senate or the president’s veto pen.
Given the pattern of abuse, the nation would be better served by allowing FISA Section 702 authority to expire in the hope that a new administration will take a fresh look at the issue next year.
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