The weekslong FISA battle that ended in an overnight defeat for Mike Johnson

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Conservative privacy hawks delivered a blunt verdict to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) after weeks of wrangling over an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: no deal.

The back-to-back losses suffered by Johnson on the floor early Friday morning were months in the making, as GOP divisions against an extension of a government spy tool without reforms boiled over into a full-blown revolt that forced leadership to pass a 10-day extension to buy more negotiating time.

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