Jim Jordan: FBI Broke Rules Searching Americans Under Section 702

Section 702 Surveillance and Queries

• 🎯 Section 702 of FISA permits government surveillance of foreigners outside the U.S. for intelligence gathering.
• 🔍 The collected intelligence is stored in a large database, and the government conducts queries, a term for searches, within this data.

FBI's Rule Violations

• ⚠️ The FBI searched American citizens' phone numbers, names, and email addresses within this database three million times in 2021.
• 🚨 The Inspector General found that the FBI failed to follow its own rules in these searches 278,000 times.

Push for Warrant Requirement

• ⚖️ Representative Jim Jordan is advocating for a warrant requirement for the government to search American citizens' data.
• 🏛️ Currently, the government must obtain a warrant from a separate branch of government to access an American's information, a principle Jordan aims to uphold.
• 🗳️ A previous vote to include a warrant requirement in legislation failed by a narrow margin (212-212).

Future Legislative Efforts

• 🗓️ Jordan and his colleagues are committed to reintroducing and passing legislation to reinstate the warrant requirement within the next 12 months.
• 🛡️ The goal is to protect American citizens and adhere to constitutional principles, with exceptions for exigent circumstances or cyber attacks.