The FBI once again spied on American citizens without court-ordered FISA warrants.
The FBI went around the FISA court and looked through NSA communications in search of ‘far-right domestic extremists’ despite being warned several years earlier it was unconstitutional (Fourth Amendment violation).
Presiding FISA judge James Boasberg said he discovered “apparent widespread violations of the querying standard.”
According to a heavily redacted FISA report dated November 18, 2020 and declassified on Monday, seven FBI field offices were implicated in violations.
An FBI analyst ran a search for NSA data “in connection with predicated criminal investigations relating to domestic terrorism” and 33 results turned up.
The FBI was warned by a federal judge in 2018 and 2019 that searching through NSA electric communications to evade warrants was unconstitutional but they did it anyway.
Why would the FBI follow the law?
Not one FBI official went to jail for illegally spying on Trump’s 2016 campaign and beyond.
One FBI lawyer (Kevin Clinesmith) was given a slap on the wrist when the Spygate investigation came to a conclusion and John Durham, the US Attorney tasked to investigate the origins of the illegal spy campaign has all but disappeared into the ether.
It is unclear if the FBI made any arrests from the illegal “backdoor queries.”
The NSA often sweeps up Americans’ communication in its gathering of so-called ‘foreign’ intel so the FBI saw it as an easy opportunity to snoop.
Read the report here:
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