President Trump said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court should be “forbidden” from allowing the surveillance of American citizens, according to Sen. Rand Paul.
The Kentucky Republican told reporters on Thursday that he spoke with the president, who signaled disagreement with Attorney General William Barr over a clean extension of expiring Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions as lawmakers debate reforms to the surveillance program that Trump and his allies claim was improperly leveraged against his 2016 campaign.
“Spoke with @realDonaldTrump,” Paul tweeted on Thursday. “He agrees that the secret FISA court (intended to be used on foreign spies) should be forbidden from ever spying on or investigating Americans, and that Congress should act NOW to make sure of that!”
Spoke with @realDonaldTrump . He agrees that the secret FISA court (intended to be used on foreign spies) should be forbidden from ever spying on or investigating Americans, and that Congress should act NOW to make sure of that!
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 27, 2020
It was reported earlier this week that Trump urged Barr to do away with FISA entirely last year, saying that he would rather eliminate the program than overhaul it. But the attorney general told Trump that reauthorization was needed, without any changes, for national security reasons, after which Trump relented.
The conversation was said to have taken place months before Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report documenting at least 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” from the FBI’s submissions to the FISA court to obtain warrants to wiretap onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who was suspected of being an agent for Russia. Page was never charged with any wrongdoing. The DOJ later determined that at least two of the four warrants were invalid.
Barr huddled with Senate Republicans on Tuesday to convince them to extend the soon-to-expire surveillance provisions while giving him time to “fairly quickly” implement reforms aimed at curbing the kind of federal surveillance abuse that targeted Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump retweeted a clip on Thursday from Rep. Jim Jordan commenting on deliberations in the House on FISA reform. In the video, the Ohio Republican said FISA abuse should “never again” take place.
FISA Reform markup tomorrow in Judiciary.
Remember, AG Bill Barr used the term “political surveillance” to describe what took place. That should never happen in America!
That’s why we need to make changes. pic.twitter.com/VnvDkC86ON
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 25, 2020
Trump also retweeted a post from Jordan with the message, “They spied on my campaign!”
They spied on my campaign! https://t.co/LpIc3cNBnr
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2020
Horowitz’s report noted that no evidence of political motivation was found in the genesis of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s campaign.
The FISA court, which was established in 1978 to oversee the approval of warrants sought by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, has been criticized by privacy advocates for allowing the government to make secret and unchallenged arguments before its judges.
Paul’s comments on Thursday cast doubt on whether Congress will agree to renew key features of the Patriot Act. Three FISA provisions are set to expire on March 15.
The Kentucky Republican stood on the Senate floor for 11 hours to speak against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act in 2015.
