Where was all the interest about the problems with this program before 2017?
NR: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has ruled that an FBI program intended to target foreign suspects violated Americans’ constitutional right to privacy by collecting the personal information of American citizens along with the foreign targets of the surveillance.
According to the ruling, tens of thousands of searches the FBI made of raw intelligence databases from 2017 to 2018 were illegal, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The searches involved personal data including emails and telephone numbers of private citizens.
“The court…finds that the FBI’s querying procedures and minimization procedures are not consistent with the requirements of the Fourth Amendment,” wrote U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in the ruling, which was released Tuesday in partially redacted form.
Boasberg said the Trump administration failed to persuade the court that adjusting the program to more efficiently protect American citizens’ privacy would impede the FBI’s ability to counter threats. more here
Good for Judge Boasberg. I’m glad somebody understands that the 4th Amendment, heck half of the Bill of Rights, is to impede the “efficiency” of fed spies, enforcers, and guards.
so, all the illegal surveillance happened during the Trump Administration … & not before? …. gee, what a bit of serendipity, eh?
something is not quite passing the ‘smell’ test
… or, it could be the way PDT’s Administration shows that the FBI program is illegal to begin with … maybe?
“Americans” (I won’t presume their citizenship) who think that searching anything looking for some crime to charge them with, is not a violation — as long as whatever was taken and copied is put back where they left it — don’t rise to my level of notice. Even if MS-13 is hacking them apart on my front lawn.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand who’s wrist gets slapped? Acts of illegal espionage should punishable by death! Those that actually “listened” and those that approved it. It is really late and heads should be rolling.
“The first stage in the corruption of morals is the banishment of truth …”
Michel de Montaigne
So the FISA court can judge itself?
Thank you, Patriot Act!