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2019-12-12 Home Front: Politix
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Republicans Condemn FBI's Use of Surveillance Powers They Long Supported
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[WSJ] WASHINGTON‐One by one, Republican senators expressed outrage Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had committed errors in how it sought and obtained surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser, describing the findings contained in a new inspector general report as evidence of alarming privacy violations that could be wielded against any American.
The concerns echoed those made by civil liberties advocates for decades. But they came this time from self-described national security hawks who have long voted to renew and expand U.S. surveillance powers.
In dressing down the FBI during Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s testimony about his report on the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation, several Republicans suggested they were open to major alterations of a post-Watergate intelligence law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.
Continued from Page 4
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Whether their frustrations will amount to more than political theater to defend President Trump and attack Democrats remains to be seen. But the rhetoric marked a sharp pivot for several lawmakers who have in the past strenuously rejected privacy arguments in favor of supporting programs that intelligence officials often warned could jeopardize national security if they were curtailed.
In an impassioned opening statement, Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, railed against what he described as a loose system of oversight at the FBI that allowed investigators to push forward with a counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He said the FBI "defrauded" the secretive FISA court with its applications for surveillance on the former campaign adviser, Carter Page, and compared the FBI’s actions to abuses discovered after Watergate.
"It’s as if J. Edgar Hoover came back to life," Sen. Graham said, invoking the name of the FBI’s long-tenured previous director who oversaw spying on civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King Jr.
Acknowledging that he proudly considered himself a "pretty hawkish guy," Mr. Graham said he would hate to rein in the FISA process given foreign security threats to the U.S. "But after your report, I have serious concerns about whether the FISA court can continue unless there’s fundamental reform," Mr. Graham said.
In his detailed report, Mr. Horowitz concluded the FBI was justified in opening the counterintelligence probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, but he described "repeated failures" in how investigators compiled surveillance applications. The FBI said it accepted recommended changes to its handling of surveillance applications made by Mr. Horowitz.
Also referring to himself as a "national security hawk," Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.), said he had previously ignored warnings about the possibility that surveillance powers could be abused, believing "that stuff like this just couldn’t possibly happen at the FBI and Department of Justice."
Both Sens. Graham and Sasse have repeatedly voted to renew and in some cases widen existing surveillance authorities, including those held by the FBI. President Trump, too, has pushed to maintain the intelligence community’s spying capabilities, despite his repeated lacerations of those agencies.
Earlier this year, for example, the Trump White House moved to permanently preserve a National Security Agency surveillance program that collects U.S. call metadata even though it has been shut down because of repeated compliance issues‐spurning the advice of some senior intelligence officials who said it no longer held national security value. That program expires in March, and some congressional aides and civil liberties advocates have said privately that they believe Mr. Horowitz’s report could boost efforts to seek new privacy safeguards when Congress debates it.
Previous administrations, including that of Democrat Barack Obama, have also vigorously fought efforts to curtail or make more transparent FISA proceedings.
Attorney General William Barr, too, has said he wants to consider changes to the FISA process in the wake of Mr. Horowitz’s report, though he has shown deference to surveillance programs in the past.
During his last stint as attorney general in the early 1990s, Mr. Barr signed off on a secret surveillance program that allowed the Drug Enforcement Administration to collect in bulk records of Americans’ international calls. That program relied on a loose statutory interpretation of the word "relevant" that later undergirded the NSA’s own bulk phone surveillance program that was revealed by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
Democrats in Wednesday’s hearing also said they supported adding more civil liberties protections to the FISA process, saying the problems described in Mr. Horowitz’s report sprang from systemic shortcomings in surveillance law and oversight. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) said he welcomed the "newfound indignation about the potential reform of the FISA process" from his Republican colleagues. 
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Posted by Besoeker 2019-12-12 02:46||
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