Two Democratic senators who have long overseen the U.S. intelligence community say the Trump administration is illegally withholding secret court findings from Congress while pressing lawmakers to renew a surveillance program that allows federal agents to access Americans’ communications without a warrant.
Dispute over an undisclosed surveillance ruling
Seven months ago, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court challenged a search filter that allowed intelligence analysts to retrieve messages belonging to U.S. citizens from intercepted data without the authorization, written justification or records required by law. The court nevertheless approved an additional year of supervision. The ruling has not been made public, and Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Adam Schiff of California say the administration missed its own September deadline to announce it.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expired in June after Congress failed to renew it. However, collection has continued under the court’s approval in March. According to the administration’s public documents, rulings such as this one are reviewed for publication “within 180 days of issuance.” That period ended on September 13, even as intelligence officials urged lawmakers to reauthorize the program by the end of the year.
Wyden, the longest-serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Schiff, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the administration owes Congress an explanation for the delay, along with the names of the officials responsible. They gave Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Branch until November 6 to respond.
“If this administration does not comply with this simple legal command,” the senators wrote in a demand letter exclusively obtained by WIRED, “it is unclear why Congress and the American people would trust this administration to follow Section 702’s other legal restrictions.”
Civil liberties groups call for rejecting renewal
Demand Progress and 22 other civil liberties and government-accountability groups gathered outside Congress on Monday and urged congressional leaders to reject Section 702 reauthorization. “Meanwhile, the government is actively withholding legally required information about how its surveillance programs operate,” the groups said. The signatories include the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative-backed Privacy and Surveillance Accountability Project.
The Trump administration has already faced pressure to publish the ruling and has promised to do so. In April, Sens. Tom Cotton and Mark Warner, the Republican chairman and Democratic vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, called for its publication within 15 days to inform the Senate’s deliberations.
In July, the senators asked Attorney General Branch in writing whether he would commit to declassifying the ruling by the 180-day deadline. Blanche replied, “yes.”
Warner “has made it clear that he supports transparency regarding Section 702,” communications director Rachel Cohen told WIRED. Cohen said there was “no response” from either former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard or her interim acting director, Bill Pruitt, but added that “Sen. Warner expects DNI Clayton to follow the bipartisan letter and declassify the opinion as required by law.”
Source: www.wired.com