Matt Gaetz confronts DOJ over accusations that more than 10,000 government workers may conduct ‘backdoor’ surveillance of Americans" title="Matt Gaetz confronts DOJ over accusations that more than 10,000 government workers may conduct ‘backdoor’ surveillance of Americans" />

During a hearing on “Fixing FISA” before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Government Crime and Surveillance on Thursday, Inspector General Michael Horowitz spoke about flaws in the FBI’s use of the Act’s powers. foreign intelligence surveillance (FISA).

Horowitz, who previously uncovered serious problems with FISA during the Trump-Russia investigation, highlighted troubling issues with the bureau’s use of FISA during his testimony before Congress. The purpose of the hearing was to address FISA’s shortcomings and suggest possible solutions to improve its use in the future.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz couldn’t give a clear answer when asked by Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, about the number of federal government officials authorized to conduct strip searches of Americans through the Surveillance Act of foreign intelligence (FISA).

Under Section 702 of FISA, intelligence agencies have the authority to conduct targeted surveillance of non-Americans abroad, but that power has been misused by North -Americans in the past. According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s 2022 Transparency Report, 3.4 million backdoor searches were conducted in 2021. These numbers highlight FISA’s potential for abuse and raise privacy concerns for US citizens.

Some Republicans in both the House and Senate have voiced their opposition to reauthorizing FISA, citing past abuses that were exposed, in part, by Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Those abuses were related to the FBI’s use of the discredited dossier of former British spy Christopher Steele to obtain flawed FISA surveillance against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign associate, both during after the 2016 election.

Last year, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) disclosed information on the number of searches conducted by the FBI under Section 702 that targeted data or communications of US citizens. According to ODNI, there were “fewer than” 1.32 million searches in 2020 and “fewer than” 3.39 million searches in 2021. These numbers have raised concerns about the potential for FISA abuse and the impact in the privacy of American citizens.

During a congressional hearing Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz confronted DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz about a bombshell report from last year.

Released last May, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s transparency report revealed that between December… pic.twitter.com/rCJAEHsOgE

— D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 (@eclipsethis2003) April 27, 2023

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) asked Horowitz about these more than 3 million “back searches.”

“It’s obviously worrisome that there’s this volume of searches, and especially in terms of the error rate that’s been reported over the last two years,” Horowitz said, adding that he believed the rate of error of wrong or inappropriate searches is “about 30%.”

There was about a 30 percent error rate in those queries, Horowitz said in his testimony.

“How many people can perform these backdoor queries?” Gaetz asked.

“I will defer to the members of the board because you have the ongoing review,” Horowitz replied, referring to Sharon Bradford Franklin, chairwoman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

“I’m afraid I don’t have those numbers at my fingertips in terms of the number of people who might be doing these kinds of searches,” he replied.

“If I put it to you that we believe there may be north of 10,000 people in the federal government who can make these inquiries, would anyone have a basis to disagree with that assessment?” Gaetz asked.

“No,” Horowitz said.

The Biden administration released a statement supporting the reauthorization of Section 702 on February 28.

“The Biden-Harris Administration strongly supports Congress’s reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a vital intelligence-gathering authority that Atty. general and the director of national intelligence conveyed today in a joint letter to the leadership of Congress,” the White House statement said. “Section 702 has proven to be a cornerstone of US national security . This authority is an invaluable tool that continues to protect Americans every day and is crucial to ensuring that U.S. defense, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies can respond to threats from the People’s Republic of China, Russia , nefarious cyber actors, terrorists and those who seek to damage our critical infrastructure.”

“Reauthorization of Section 702 and other expiring provisions of FISA is a top priority for the Administration,” the statement continued. “I have asked Senior Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer to coordinate the White House reauthorization effort, working closely with the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and others federal partners as we constructively engage with Congress to preserve this essential tool to protect America.”

The DOJ’s inspector general previously issued a statement to Congress outlining the numerous procedural violations the FBI committed during its Operation Crossfire Hurricane to investigate possible Russian collusion with then-candidate Donald Trump.

“The FBI fell far short of these standards in the applications directed at Carter Page, even though the FBI recognized that these applications would be subject to greater scrutiny than most FISA applications,” he said. find Horowitz. “In addition, we identified numerous instances of violations of the FBI’s factual accuracy review procedures (the “Woods procedures”) in connection with Carter Page’s four FISA applications.”

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