Now that the president has signed into law the USA Freedom Act, curbing the NSA’s mass surveillance programs, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is criticizing the legislation—which Hillary Clinton endorsed.
“The USA Freedom act was a step in the right direction, and I’m glad that it passed and the president signed it,” O’Malley said Wednesday—but he went on to say that stronger privacy measures are still needed.
“I would like to see us go further in terms of a role for a public advocate in the FISA court,” he told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, according to TIME. “As a lawyer myself and by training, I think our national security and our rights would be better served if we had a bigger role for a public advocate in the FISA court.”
O’Malley also made sure to distance himself from Rand Paul, a fellow USA Freedom Act critic.
While in New Hampshire last week, he denounced Paul’s repeated attempts to block McConnell’s extensions of the Patriot Act.
“I think we could be less safe if we resort to obstructionism when it comes to something as important as protecting our homeland from the threat of terror attacks,” he said, according to BuzzFeed’s report.
Historically, the NSA has not been a topic on which O’Malley lavished much attention. Hillary Clinton has also avoided the topic in the past, giving vague answers about where she stands on NSA spying.
Only after a federal court ruled the NSA’s bulk data collection illegal under the Patriot Act did Clinton come out in support of the USA Freedom Act.
The bill requires the NSA to go to the phone companies to collect records, rather than storing them themselves.
