Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said during a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday that Congress cannot trust the FBI because Director Christopher Wray could not say who has been punished for violating Americans’ rights.
Wray appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as the committee discussed oversight of the FBI. Lee, a privacy advocate, discussed many of the agency’s failures to discipline agents who violated Americans’ privacy rights.
WATCH: Jim Jordan: There Are 204K Reasons to Oppose FISA Reauthorization:
House Committee on the Judiciary / YouTubeLee described many instances in which FBI agents have reportedly misused Section 702 of FISA. Citing a declassified Director of National Intelligence (DNI) report, he said an agent searched communications after his mother suspected that his father had an affair.
Citing a September 2023 Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board report, the Utah senator said two FBI analysts conducted two queries seeking information about a potential tenant for a rental property owned by one of the analysts. The same report found that a National Security Agency (NSA) analyst conducted two searches for information about individuals that the analyst had met through a dating application.
Lee cited other abuses, including, 19,000 donors to a particular congressional campaign, 133 Americans participating in “civil unrest and protests,” and Americans near the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
.@FBI, it's supposed to be hard for the government to spy on Americans.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 5, 2023
That's why we have a Constitution. pic.twitter.com/28F3iOzZIR
The Utah senator also noted that the FISA Court searches were made in 2022 using the last names of a U.S. senator and of a state senator.
Lee said that an FBI agent had searched the communications of a state judge who had complained to the agency about “alleged civil rights violations” by a chief of police.
Asked about all of these situations, Wray could not say if any of these abuses, as Lee described, have either been fired or had their security clearances removed.
WATCH — Mike Lee Rips Christopher Wray for Saying Warrant Requirement for Surveillance Would Hurt FBI:
@SenMikeLee / XThe FBI director said that these alleged abuses happened before the FBI had made reforms to its disciplinary and FISA oversight process.
Lee slammed Wray because members of the Judiciary Committee are not privy to the text of the FBI’s reforms, even though it is the Senate committee tasked with oversight of the FBI.
WATCH — Mike Lee: Congress Cannot Trust FBI Because Agency Has Not Disciplined or Fired Agents Who Violated Americans’ Rights:
Senate Judiciary Committee“So, you’re telling me that the FBI has completely ignored the limited court order requirement that it’s already subjected to? You have the audacity to come here and you told us that adding a warrant requirement to [Section] 702, even for queries for American persons, on U.S. soil, that would amount to some sort of unilateral disarmament? You have a lot of gall, sir. This is disgraceful,” Lee said.
“The Fourth Amendment requires a lot more than that and you know it,” he added.
Lee and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) have sponsored the Government Surveillance Reform Act, a bill that aims to rein in Section 702 and other government surveillance abuses.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
