Trump Comes Out Against FISA ‘If it Doesn’t Come with the Save America Act,’ Complicating Congressional Showdown

President Donald Trump said Monday that he will not support an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act unless it includes his election integrity measure, the Save America Act.

“The Dumocrats want FISA because that’s what they used to go after me for three years during my First Term!” Trump wrote on . “I’m against FISA if it doesn’t come with The Save America Act (Full version!) firmly attached to it. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The commander in chief outlined key provisions he wants passed, including voter ID and proof of citizenship as well as limited mail-in ballots for extreme circumstances.

He added that the bill would ban biological men from playing in women’s sports and prevent transgender “mutualization surgery” for children.

House Democrats, along with several Republicans, recently rejected a short-term extension of FISA, causing Section 702 to expire, according to NBC News.

Reuters also noted that Trump is refusing to sign any other legislation until the SAVE America Act becomes law.

FISA, originally passed in 1978, allows government agencies to gather foreign intelligence through electronic surveillance, physical searches, and a trap-and-trace program.

“FISA currently defines foreign intelligence information as information relating to a foreign power or that generally concerns the ability of the United States to protect against international terrorism, potential attacks by foreign powers or agents of foreign powers, or international drug trafficking,” the U.S. congressional website reads.

“Though Congress initially limited FISA to regulating government use of electronic surveillance, Congress has amended FISA to regulate other intelligence-gathering practices, such as physical searches, the use of [pen registers and trap-and-trace] devices, and compelled production of certain types of business records.”

In addition, it established FISA courts led by federal district judges who hold hearings in secret and are selected by the Supreme Court’s chief justice.

The act was updated in 2008 with various provisions meant to deal with technological advancements, ultimately allowing for warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens located outside the country, and in special cases, American citizens, which has generated massive amounts of controversy.

Moreover, the updates gave FISA courts the power to “review an application and to enter an order approving targeting a U.S. person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States to domestically acquire foreign intelligence information.”

A 2019 Department of Justice news release said four FBI applications were “filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in 2016 and 2017 to conduct Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance targeting Carter Page,” who worked on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Page traveled to Russia for personal and business reasons that year, causing him to become a target of Operation Crossfire Hurricane during the final year of the Obama administration.

An investigative report was released by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2021, with GOP  Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa writing: “I believe that Crossfire Hurricane was one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ.”

“The FISA court was lied to,” he declared. “Exculpatory information was withheld on those being investigated. The investigators, with some notable exceptions, were incredibly biased and used the powers of law enforcement for political purposes. The subjects of the investigation had their lives turned upside down. It is my hope that counterintelligence investigations will be reined in and this never happens again in America.”

Grassley called the FISA warrant against Page a “travesty,” adding that “those who signed them have acknowledged that if they knew then what they know now, they would not have signed it.”

“The bottom line is that going forward we must have more checks and balances when it comes to political investigations,” he concluded. “We must have more meaningful sign-offs on warrant applications, and we need to restore the trust to the American people in this system.”

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