FBI’s Use of Surveillance Database Violated Americans’ Privacy Rights, Court Found
FBI’s Use of Surveillance Database Violated Americans’
Privacy Rights, Court Found
U.S. discloses ruling last year by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court that FBI’s data queries of U.S. citizens were unconstitutional
By Dustin Volz and Byron Tau Oct. 8, 2019 2:38 pm ET
WASHINGTON—Some of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s electronic surveillance activities
violated the constitutional privacy rights of Americans swept up in a
controversial foreign intelligence program, a secretive surveillance court has
ruled.
The ruling deals a
rare rebuke to U.S. spying activities that have generally withstood legal
challenge or review.
The intelligence
community disclosed Tuesday that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
last year found that the FBI’s pursuit of data about Americans ensnared in a
warrantless internet-surveillance program intended to target foreign suspects
may have violated the law authorizing the program, as well as the
Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.
The court concluded
that the FBI had been improperly searching a database of raw intelligence for
information on Americans—raising concerns about oversight of the program, which
as a spy program operates in near total secrecy.
The court ruling
identifies tens of thousands of improper searches of raw intelligence databases
by the bureau in 2017 and 2018 that it deemed improper in part because they
involved data related to tens of thousands of emails or telephone numbers—in
one case, suggesting that the FBI was using the intelligence information to vet
its personnel and cooperating sources. Federal law requires that the database
only be searched by the FBI as part of seeking evidence of a crime or for
foreign intelligence information.
In other cases, the
court ruling reveals improper use of the database by individuals. In one case,
an FBI contractor ran a query of an intelligence database—searching information
on himself, other FBI personnel and his relatives, the court revealed.
The Trump
administration failed to make a persuasive argument that modifying the program
to better protect the privacy of Americans would hinder the FBI’s ability to
address national-security threats, wrote U.S. District Judge James Boasberg,
who serves on the FISA Court, in the partially redacted 167-page opinion
released Tuesday.
“The court accordingly finds that the
FBI’s querying procedures and minimization procedures are not consistent with
the requirements of the Fourth Amendment,” Mr. Boasberg concluded.
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