Remember when the FBI said they didn’t spy on Americans without a court order, just a few days ago? They were just kidding about that.
FBI Director James Comey admitted Thursday at the Brooking Institution that “there are exceptions” to getting a warrant, the National Journal reports.
“It remains true in the over-, over- overwhelming number of our cases—we have court authority to collect the content of emails or telephones,” Comey said, “But there are exceptions to the warrant requirement.”
Here’s how Comey explained the situation in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired over the weekend:
James Comey: By the FBI? No. We don’t do electronic surveillance without a court order.
Scott Pelley: You know that some people are going to roll their eyes when they hear that?
James Comey: Yeah, but we cannot read your emails or listen to your calls without going to a federal judge, making a showing of probable cause that you are a terrorist, an agent of a foreign power, or a serious criminal of some sort, and get permission for a limited period of time to intercept those communications. It is an extremely burdensome process. And I like it that way.
Now Comey says that, although he “gave an answer that I thought was fair and accurate,” some people told him after the interview that his answer “was insufficiently lawyerly, it should have been longer, and what about the exceptions.”
“I wish I had thought of it in the moment,” Comey said.
Comey clarified that the FBI can conduct warrant-less surveillance when they have prior consent or under a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that permits “incidental” collection of the communications of any American who has made contact with a foreign target.
