Court: FBI Improperly Used Surveillance Powers on US Senator – By Michael Katz (Newsmax) / July 21, 2023
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.”
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