{"id":1903756,"date":"2023-03-23T12:25:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T16:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-intel-republicans-to-probe-egregious-fisa-abuses-allegedly-used-to-illegally-spy-on-americans\/"},"modified":"2023-03-23T12:33:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T16:33:41","slug":"house-intel-republicans-to-probe-egregious-fisa-abuses-allegedly-used-to-illegally-spy-on-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-intel-republicans-to-probe-egregious-fisa-abuses-allegedly-used-to-illegally-spy-on-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"House Intel Republicans to Probe \u2018Egregious\u2019 FISA Abuses Allegedly Used to Illegally Spy on Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-intel-republicans-to-probe-egregious-fisa-abuses-allegedly-used-to-illegally-spy-on-americans%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1903756&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<p>Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have formed a working group to investigate \u201cegregious abuses\u201d of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which has allegedly been used to illegally spy on millions of Americans.<\/p>\n<p>The group will be led by Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), a congressman who claims to have been one of over 3.3 million Americans illegally spied on under FISA authority. The panel will be chaired by two other Republicans, Reps. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), as well as Democrat Reps.\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Carson (D-Ind.),\u00a0Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), and\u00a0Jason Crow (D-Colo.).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5112696\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript> U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) (R) talks to Rep.-elect Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) in the House Chamber during the third day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, on Jan. 5, 2023. (Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) called FISA section 702 \u201ca top legislative priority\u201d for the Intel Committee.<\/p>\n<p>But, he added,\u00a0\u201cThere have been significant and egregious abuses of Section 702 that have eroded the trust of the American people, putting FISA\u2019s reauthorization at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time he made the comments, Turner was addressing a panel of intelligence leaders, who he said were primarily responsible for this dwindling trust.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur FISA Working Group, led by Representative Darin LaHood, is committed to finding bipartisan solutions to reform the Intelligence Community\u2019s foreign surveillance tools,\u201d Turner concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the panel, praised the working group, suggesting it would help to ensure that both the homefront and Americans\u2019 civil liberties will be respected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I]t is our duty as Representatives to ensure that these authorities do not violate Americans\u2019 constitutionally protected rights and to look at further reforms to protect those rights,\u201d Himes told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. \u201cThe six members of this working group encapsulated the thoughtful, pragmatic, bipartisan approach that will be essential to tackling one of the most important issues facing this Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Himes praised section 702 as \u201ca powerful tool that the Intelligence Community uses every day to prevent terrorist attacks, disrupt cyber attacks, and gain unique intelligence insights on foreign targets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He warned that allowing the provisions to lapse entirely with no replacement would be \u201cdeeply negligent\u201d and would endanger U.S. national security.<\/p>\n<p>Originally, FISA was intended as a safeguard of Americans\u2019 civil liberties against the growing Cold War surveillance state. However, subsequent additions to the legislation, and broad interpretations of its provisions by the intelligence community, mean that the real-world use of the FISA has expanded well beyond this original intent.<\/p>\n<p>A 2021 report ordered by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)\u2014the closed-door judicial body that grants broad surveillance authority to intelligence officials\u2014revealed that the FBI had used the FISA to spy on more than 3.3 million Americans without a warrant.<\/p>\n<p>The FISC expressed at the time the opinion that the U.S. intelligence community was \u201cseriously and systematically abusing its warrantless electronic surveillance authority.\u201d The watchdog also opined that federal agencies had been legally \u201cnoncompliant\u201d and \u201coverly broad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of those millions of queries, the report revealed, was exercised against an unnamed person who was a sitting member of Congress when the query took place. During a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on March 9, LaHood expressed his belief that he was this person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to make clear the FBI\u2019s inappropriate querying of a duly elected member of Congress is egregious and a violation not only that degrades the trust in FISA, but is viewed as a threat to the separation of powers,\u201d LaHood said. \u201cI have had the opportunity to review the classified summary of this violation, and it is my opinion that the member of Congress that was wrongfully queried multiple times solely by his name was in fact me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LaHood later told Fox News that his targeting \u201chighlights the trust issue\u201d Americans have with the intelligence community in regards to FISA section 702.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, intelligence officials relied on FISA section 702, a portion of text amended into the bill in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Section 702 nominally does not give the intel community the legal authority to spy on U.S. citizens.\u00a0Under U.S. law, the FISA allows intelligence agencies to track the cell phone and text communications of suspected foreign agents.<\/p>\n<p>Section 702 of the FISA reads: \u201cThe Attorney General (AG) and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) may jointly authorize the targeting of (i) non-U.S. persons (ii) who are reasonably believed to be outside of the United States (iii) to acquire foreign intelligence information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, this power can grant an expanding circle of possible searches to the FBI and other intel agencies, which can use the same power against U.S. citizens who had any interaction with targeted foreigners.<\/p>\n<p>Nominally, this is illegal; Section 702 of the FISA authorizes surveillance only of foreign agents operating outside the United States.\u00a0But concerns remain\u2014particularly among Republicans ramping up an investigation into the weaponization of the federal government\u2014about renewing this surveillance program.<\/p>\n<h2>Set to Expire in December<\/h2>\n<p>The most controversial surveillance tools in section 702 of the FISA are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2023, without congressional re-authorization.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. intelligence community has been open about their wish for Congress to re-authorize the disputed law.<\/p>\n<p>To that end, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) announced during the March 9 hearing that Republicans would form a working group to investigate alleged FISA abuses.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4870402\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript> Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, speaks in Washington on Aug. 12, 2022. (Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Turner unveiled his plan to form a six-member working group, comprising three Republicans and three Democrats, to consider the issue of section 702\u2019s renewal during the March 9 Intelligence hearing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCongress cannot reform FISA alone,\u201d Turner said, telling the panelist of intelligence leaders that he hoped they would coordinate with the working group to renew FISA in a revised form \u201cthat safeguard[s] and guarantee[s] the rights of all U.S. citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is the actions of individuals in your organizations that have degraded the public trust that has ultimately put FISA at risk,\u201d Turner added.<\/p>\n<p>Attention has been focused more closely on FISA by Republicans\u2019 probes into the \u201cweaponization\u201d of federal law enforcement, which seeks to catalog the ways that federal law enforcement agencies have gone well beyond their legal scope in the use of intelligence-gathering tools. Republicans have expressed concerns with granting a re-authorization for the legislation in view of these concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Though the issue has returned to the limelight recently, this is not the first time that the FISA has been in the headlines.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation first gained public attention in December 2005 following the publication of a New York Times article\u00a0that showed that Bush since at least 2002 had carried out warrantless wiretapping within the United States. Another report from Bloomberg\u00a0suggested that this expansive use of the FISA may have begun as early as 2000, before the terror attacks that purportedly made the measures necessary.<\/p>\n<p>In late-2017, Congress was faced with a similar dispute.<\/p>\n<p>It ultimately re-authorized section 702, and the renewal was signed into law by President Donald Trump after some initial opposition.<\/p>\n<p>But in light of a series of GOP probes into the Department of Justice and FBI, the bill will face much tougher hurdles in receiving a congressional green light this time around.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have formed a working group to investigate \u201cegregious abuses\u201d of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which has allegedly been used to illegally spy on millions of Americans. The group will be led by Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), a congressman who claims to have been one of over 3.3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1903757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[22592,5582,4845,3884,19971,3653,15733,7526,4083,3756,6893],"class_list":["post-1903756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-egregious","tag-abuses","tag-allegedly","tag-americans","tag-fisa","tag-house","tag-illegally","tag-intel","tag-probe","tag-republicans","tag-spy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1903756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1903757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1903756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1903756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1903756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}