Durbin Questions Witnesses During Judiciary Committee Hearing On Oversight Of Section 702 Of The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

Hearing

"I listened to how this program was described by our witnesses. Mr. Fonzone described it as "an elegant program.' Mr. Barnes described it as "agile and specific.' Mr. Cohen referred to "precision.' Mr. Olsen [said] that it was "irreplaceable and invaluable' and so forth. But since the last reauthorization of Section 702 in 2017, many violations of the constitutional, statutory, and court-imposed restrictions on Section 702 have come to light. Last month, an unsealed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, opinion revealed that the FBI conducted improper searches of the 702 database for Americans' communications [over] 278,000 times. These searches have affected all manner of Americans, such as: individuals listed in police homicide reports, including victims, next-of kin, and witnesses to the crimes; 133 people arrested during the 2020 Black Lives Matters protest when, as the Justice Department itself concluded, "there was no specific factual basis to think the searches would turn up foreign intelligence'; and 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign when, "only eight identifiers used in the query had sufficient ties to foreign influence activities' to allow such a search.

Mr. Abbate and Mr. Olsen, you both testified regarding the remedial measures that have already been implemented or are underway. But why should Congress--or the American people--trust the Executive to comply with the law this time in light of this track record?

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It has been a source of frustration since the creation of this program to get adequate accountability for the numbers either on the positive side or the negative side. And you have to, I hope, understand why some of us are skeptical at this point.

Is the skill of our adversaries and the potential destruction that they could bring to us by their malicious acts really made the Fourth Amendment something that we have to question--whether we can follow it in the 21st Century?

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If the reforms that you've mentioned in 2021 and 2022 are the only reforms that you're bringing to this Committee as we discuss the future of 702, I've got to see more. And I hope there is more that you can present."

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