The National Security Agency (NSA) collects large amounts of private information and communications from Americans’ and it turns out the FBI has been breaking the law and ignoring direct orders from a federal judge not to search through this information without a warrant.
Although a federal judge in 2018 and 2019 explained that such a use was an unconstitutional breach of privacy, a newly declassified report shows that the FBI requests access to masses of electronic communications harvested by the National Security Agency (NSA).
It shows the FBI has continued to perform warrantless searches through the NSA’s most sensitive databases for routine criminal investigations, despite being told by a federal judge in 2018 and 2019 that such a use was an unconstitutional breach of privacy.
The FBI focused many of its warrantless searches – commonly referred to as backdoor queries – on suspected ‘far-right’ domestic terrorists, The Daily Beast reported.
It’s unclear from the heavily-redacted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court report whether the FBI uncovered any criminal extremist behavior or made any arrests resulting from the searches.
In its gathering of ‘foreign’ communications data, the NSA often sweeps up Americans’ communications, too.
It’s unclear how many Americans had their data viewed by the FBI in its search for ‘racially motivated’ extremists.
The FISA report did reveal that a single request for data to the NSA from an FBI analyst for information on a suspected domestic terrorists returned 33 hits.
It’s not clear how many other requests were tied to the hunt for alleged racially motivated extremists, nor who at the FBI asked for the data or approved the request.
The FBI wouldn’t answer questions on specifics but a senior official told the Daily Mail that the FBI had taken ‘numerous steps’ to comply with the FISA court guidance over the past 18 months.
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Eric Swalwell's Relationship with Chinese Spy Shows FBI's Double Standard
California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell insists that he has done nothing wrong since the release of information pertaining to his relationship with a young woman allegedly spying for China.
Swalwell cut off contact with the spy when he was given a defensive briefing from the FBI, which brings to question, why didn’t they spy on Swalwell the way they did on Trump?
Fang Fang, a k a Christine Fang, got close to several politicians, especially in the Bay Area, from 2011 to 2015, only to abruptly leave the country as the FBI was closing in. US officials believe China’s Ministry of State Security, its main civilian spy agency, sent her here to collect intelligence and gain influence with up-and-coming politicians.
Since Democrats dominate Bay Area politics, she focused on officials such as Swalwell, starting when he was a Dublin city councilman and continuing after he won election to Congress in 2012. She turned out to have a good eye for talent: The congressman became a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2015, getting the lead role in the subcommittee on CIA oversight.
Axios reports Fang had sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors; Swalwell won’t say whether he slept with the honeytrap. He interacted with her at a number of public events over the years, and she was a fundraising bundler for his 2014 re-election campaign. She even helped place an intern in his office.
But then the FBI, in the midst of a counterintelligence probe into Fang’s activities, briefed him in 2015, and he cut all ties (though his father and brother remain Facebook friends with her).
Swalwell seems to be more upset about the leak then the fact that China targeted him. He also claims this is payback for his work trying to impeach Trump.
Swalwell pushed every Russian-collusion conspiracy theory he could find for years and yet no one connected to the president was found to have colluded with Russia. In fact the Durham investigation made top FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, plead guilty to altering a document that was then used to obtain a secret FISA application and warrant to spy on a person working for the Trump campaign.
