Last year alone, the privacy of 278,000 Americans was violated without even a warrant. This was done under the guise of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and specifically the problematic Section 702. This bill is up for annual renewal right now.

What was intended to monitor the communication of foreign threats to national security is frequently being used on Americans for political reasons — like moms raising concerns at school board meetings. The FBI is routinely violating the privacy of more than a quarter of a million Americans. That’s an average of 762 AMERICANS EACH DAY that the FBI spied on with little to no connection to the original intent of the FISA law.

Now, there are two bills in the U.S. House to combat this. HR 6570 goes too far, giving extraordinary protections to foreign nationals. HR 6611 does not go far enough to safeguard protections for U.S. citizens.

Contact Congress to demand support for the necessary reforms to protect our privacy and constitutional rights. — Mat

Liberty Counsel Action and the ACLU have a rare moment of agreement urging the House to do more to protect U.S. citizens. The reason for this is simple. Steven Bradbury of The Heritage Foundation warns that “the FBI has come to pose a clear threat to the liberties of Americans.”

One court found that for more than four years, the FBI violated the law and invaded the privacy of Americans even when there was “no reasonable basis to expect they would return foreign intelligence or evidence of crime.”

“Since 9/11, the FBI has increasingly directed its broad intelligence-gathering powers at political movements that threaten the Washington establishment, such as Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns, and at the exercise of free speech (usually speech that dissents from the government’s preferred policy positions), religious liberties, and other constitutionally protected rights by ordinary Americans,” according to the Heritage Foundation.

The threat of Communist China, Hamas and other terrorists, drug traffickers, cartels, and others seeking to harm our nation, some level of monitoring foreign threats is necessary.

However, the FBI used FISA to monitor politicians, political donors, people in D.C. on Jan. 6, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans.

No one was safe from the FBI’s prying eyes.

The FISA law must be reformed to protect law-abiding Americans from the abuse of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. House is considering two bills that will make small changes to Section 702. Yet, sweeping reforms are needed. Urge the U.S. House to act now to put in place much broader reforms.

Law-abiding citizens have routinely been targeted by the FBI. Instead of investigating foreigners suspected of crimes, the FBI used this database for political or ideological purposes. It targeted Americans based on political affiliations.

The FBI unlawfully spied on President Donald Trump and knowingly spread false information about an alleged connection with Russia in order to suppress information about Hunter and Joe Biden during the 2020 election.

“Because Section 702 does not involve individualized court approvals, it allows surveillance of a much wider array of foreign targets than traditional FISA. Thus, in 2022, the 702 program was used to monitor 246,073 foreign targets, while the government obtained only 337 court orders for traditional FISA surveillance,” according to Heritage Foundation’s investigative report.

This abuse MUST STOP. Congress must rein in the FBI and reform Section 702 of the FISA law. Urge Congress to stop the FBI’s abuse of FISA.

It would be bad enough if this were just happening in the FBI, but this is a pattern that extends to the Department of Justice, the IRS, and many other federal agencies. These agencies are being weaponized against Americans to favor one party.

Even the Inspector General of the Department of Justice is recommending that Section 702 of FISA be reformed by Congress to stop the abuse.

This FISA law comes up annually, and the authorizations are reapproved every year. But not this year.

Now the government wants Congress to pass a five-year authorization plan. Why? Because Donald Trump will most certainly be the Republican nominee for president. The agencies want the FISA authorization to exceed the term of the next president.

We need the U.S. House to stop FISA abuse now. 

Government agencies are being weaponized. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a five-page memorandum to the FBI warning that people who complain about lockdowns and mask mandates at school board meetings were a “threat” that needed to be monitored. This is wrong and FISA must be reformed NOW!

Mat Staver, Chairman
Liberty Counsel Action

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Sources:

Bradbury, Steven. “Evaluation of the Competing House Bills on FISA Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” The Heritage Foundation, February 12, 2024. Heritage.org/crime-and-justice/report/evaluation-the-competing-house-bills-fisa-reform-the-good-the-bad-and-the.

Gans, Jared. “FBI Repeatedly Misused Surveillance Tool, Unsealed FISA Order Reveals.” The Hill, May 19, 2023. Thehill.com/policy/national-security/4012650-fbi-misused-surveillance-tool-fisa-section-702/.

Siddiqui, Zeba. “FBI Misused Intelligence Database in 278,000 Searches, Court Says.” Reuters, May 19, 2023. Reuters.com/world/us/fbi-misused-intelligence-database-278000-searches-court-says-2023-05-19/.