Eleven civil liberties groups wrote a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate expressing concerns that Rep. Adam Schiff may be protecting an expired FBI surveillance tactic.
They accused Schiff of allowing a section of the Patriot Act that permitted “unauthorized dragnet surveillance of people in the United States” to continue after the provision expired in March during the congressional debate on the future of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants. The letter was first obtained by Gizmodo.
The groups said that Schiff, a California Democrat, and former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican, both made “alarming statements and actions” signaling their support for the online surveillance program to continue without authorization from Congress.
“Throughout the 2020 debate in Congress about whether and how to reauthorize these authorities, activity by the House and Senate intelligence committees has spurred critical questions as to what surveillance of people in the United States occurred under Section 215 [of the Patriot Act] and may still be occurring despite the sunset of these authorities, on the basis of secret claims of inherent executive power or through the misuse of other authorities,” the groups stated in the letter.
The groups noted that Burr said in March that he believed the surveillance permitted in Section 215 could continue “without Congress’s approval.” They also noted that Schiff blocked an amendment that would have required a warrant for the FBI to search any website where they could not “guarantee” that data from citizens was not being netted.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Schiff’s office for comment.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, have both raised questions to Attorney General William Barr and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe about whether the FBI was still using dragnet surveillance despite the expiration of Section 215. The civil liberties group urged leaders in Congress to support Lee and Leahy in their effort to get answers about the status of the tactic.
“Without such answers, Congress cannot know if it is unknowingly consenting to, for instance, dragnet surveillance of Americans, or if warrantless dragnet surveillance is already occurring. Congress and the public have a fundamental right to know what forms of surveillance are operating, and any and all legal umbrellas under which each program is operating,” the group wrote.
Burr is no longer the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He stepped down from his leadership role in May after the Justice Department began its investigation into his alleged insider trading.
