GOP demands FBI reforms before reauthorizing FISA: ‘End the abuses’

Leading House Republicans Demand Major Reforms Before Reauthorizing FISA Powers

“We have been very clear on a bipartisan basis with the intelligence community and the FBI that there is no support in Congress for a clean reauthorization of 702,” Turner told the Washington Examiner.

House Republicans are demanding major reforms before reauthorizing powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), the Turner-designated leader of the committee’s FISA Working Group, and Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA), another key committee member, all spoke with the Washington Examiner about the need for guardrails before FISA powers are reauthorized.

Reforms Needed at FBI and FISA Court

The trio of lawmakers want reforms at the FBI and at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves the secret warrants. Their demands are at odds with the Biden administration, which wants to reauthorize FISA Section 702 powers without changes before it expires at the end of 2023.

• Reforms are necessary to stop abuses
• Access to national security tool is essential
• FBI and intelligence community need to regain trust

“We have been very clear on a bipartisan basis with the intelligence community and the FBI that there is no support in Congress for a clean reauthorization of 702,” Turner told the Washington Examiner. “Reforms are necessary. We will be taking up the issue of reforms, and they will not be limited to 702 itself. It will encompass both abuses that we are aware of and abuses that are now in the public domain as a result of disclosure and Durham.”

It’s “essential” to have access to the national security tool, Turner said, but “it is equally essential that reforms occur to stop the abuses.”

Reforms to FBI and FISA Court

Turner and LaHood took particular aim at fired FBI Director James Comey’s role in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Russia collusion in the 2020 presidential election. Durham’s report in May on his investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators revealed FISA wrongdoing related to the FBI’s reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited and Democratic-funded dossier to obtain flawed FISA surveillance against Trump campaign associate Carter Page during and after the 2016 election.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence then declassified a FISA Court opinion last month showing the FBI committed FISA violations 278,000 times in recent years, including on people believed to be connected to violent George Floyd protests and the Capitol riot.

Another recently declassified intelligence document concluded that “misunderstandings regarding FBI’s systems and FBI’s querying procedures caused a large number of query errors” related to 702.

Opposition to Reauthorization

The 702 portion of the FISA law is not directly connected to the Trump-Russia saga but relates to what the ODNI describes as “a key provision” of FISA “that permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States.” The reauthorization has met opposition from many Republicans and some Democrats in the House and Senate.

Leading the bipartisan working group is LaHood, who says he was subjected to an improper FBI FISA query in 2019. “He is a victim — he was subject to improper 702 query, so he brings with him both an understanding of FISA and the importance of stopping the abuses,” Turner said.

Real Changes Needed

Republicans have repeatedly argued that the FBI and the intelligence community need to regain the trust of Congress and the public before the powers are reauthorized. LaHood suggested new criminal consequences for lying or omitting information to the FISA court so that “people would be put in prison.”

“Obviously the FBI is the No. 1 focus,” LaHood said. “The FBI has made a lot of changes internally. … A lot of these things haven’t been put into statute, they haven’t been made law, they are just internal mechanisms there, so I think there is some real value with statutorily putting those in place. We’ve talked about criminal penalties, criminal culpability, criminal liability. … We want to be careful not to have a chilling effect, but I think there is a happy medium there that we haven’t reached yet.”

LaHood said the FISA Court needed real changes too, arguing that its amicus curiae (or “friend of the court”) process was not properly utilized, noting that FISA hearings are held ex parte — meaning without a defense lawyer present. He also pointed out the “perplexing” fact that FISA hearings don’t have transcripts.

Originally conceived as mainly a counterterrorism tool in the wake of the deadly 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda, top Biden officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, have sought to emphasize the role FISA 702 plays in combating threats posed by China and other foreign foes.

Garcia told the Washington Examiner he’s not convinced the FBI has put in place adequate changes to prevent future abuse, and he’s “not satisfied with the lack of accountability for previous abuses.”

“It is clear that Congress must put in place guardrails on these powers” to restore faith in the intelligence community while “ensuring that there are consequences for acting in bad faith,” he said.