Section 702 under FISA allows U.S. federal intelligence agencies to conduct targeted searches of foreigners, but sometimes Americans are improperly searched in the process
FBI agents obtained information on Americans despite it not having any ‘analytical, investigative or evidentiary purpose,’ according to the report
In total, the FBI misused Section 702 over 278,000 times
FBI officials misused key surveillance tool when searching for Americans involved in the January 6 Capitol insurrection and the George Floyd protests of 2020, according to an explosive new court document which outlines the latest in a string of black marks against the agency.
The violations were first outlined in a secret court order from April 2022 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The Office of the Director of the National Intelligence (ODNI) released a redacted version of the report Friday, which found the FBI did not follow its own standards when using Section 702 to conduct warrantless searches.
Section 702 under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows U.S. federal intelligence agencies to conduct targeted searches of foreigners, but sometimes Americans are improperly searched in the process.
The report details how the FBI used Section 702 to ‘query’ – or search – names of individuals who were suspected of being on the Capitol grounds during the January 6, 2021 riot, Black Lives Matters protestors, victims of crime and their families and donors to one congressional campaign.