The FBI agreed to some 278,000 times – often without justification – to a restricted database, according to declassified documents from the court in charge of supervising espionage activities called the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court.
The inquiries made inappropriately by the FBI especially concern people detained on the sidelines of large anti-racist demonstrations in 2020, victims of crimes and even participants in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to court files.
FBI agents accessed a database put into service to collect information on the communications of foreign nationals -who do not benefit from the same legal protections as Americans- in the fight against terrorism or any foreign threat.
The requests were made to the National Security Agency (NSA), in charge of collect emails, text messages, photos, videos and other documents. The agency has acknowledged in the past that data on Americans was also collected indirectly or inadvertently.
The authorities have the right to use this information to gather data on foreign threats or criminal evidence, but according to the court they have exceeded this function.
In a case, an agent requested information from 19,000 donors who contributed to the campaign of a candidate for Congress.
The revelations come at a time when section 702 of the foreign surveillance law (Fisa) – which created these surveillance programs – comes to an end and when several congressmen hesitate to renew it.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement that it is a “scandalous abuse of the law”. “If section 702 must be renewed, it will have to be reformed to ensure better controls and put an end to abuse,” he added.
The entrance FBI still regularly spies on communications from Americans, court says was first published on newspaper TODAY.
