House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) plays a pivotal role in the decision-making on if or how Congress will reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is referred to as the “crown jewel” of the intelligence agencies.
Jordan took center stage on Wednesday as he led the hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray. Among the litany of issues Republicans and Democrats raised with the FBI Director, the agency’s alleged abuses of civil liberties became a focal point of the hearing.
Jordan said:
Here’s what’s truly unbelievable. Here’s what’s amazing. The Justice Department and the FBI want the taxpayers they censored, the parents they labeled, the Catholics they called radicals, they want them to pay for a new FBI headquarters and they want FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] reauthorization of the 702 form in its current form. … I mean you can’t make this stuff up.
Section 702 is a law that allows intelligence agencies to collect communications of targeted foreigners. It also may lead to targeted surveillance of Americans’ private communications, which privacy advocates consider a run around the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for a warrant to search Americans’ communications.
The Ohio Republican said that the FBI’s reported abuses of Section 702 affect Americans on the political left and right. He called on Republicans and Democrats to work together to address FISA.
“There are 204,000 reasons why Republicans will oppose reauthorization in its current form,” Jordan said, referring to a report that the FBI misused FISA hundreds of thousands of times.
He continued:
204,000 times that the FBI improperly searched the FISA database. And unlike the FBI’s censorship, in the court’s opinion, which was focused on conservatives, the FBI’s legal scrutiny wasn’t limited to conservatives. BLM [Black Lives Matter] supporters were illegally scrutinized by the FBI as well. And I hope our Democrat friends will join us in opposing reauthorization of Section 702 the way it’s currently done, and I think they will.
House Committee on the Judiciary / YouTube
In an interview with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Emmer told Breitbart News that he has never been a supporter of FISA and that Jordan is leading the process to address the concerns with FISA.
Emmer said, “Jim Jordan’s got a process and there’s a lot of members who are very interested in seeing how that process works. And we’ll see what kind of reforms and what kind of things the Judiciary Committee under Jim’s leadership ultimately addresses, but it is definitely an issue.”
The House Intelligence and Judiciary committees share jurisdiction over FISA. The Intelligence Committee typically is more accommodating toward the intelligence community’s needs, while the Judiciary Committee is usually more skeptical of government surveillance programs.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who sponsored a resolution calling for an end to FISA, hounded Wray over how FBI agents have used the FISA search database as their “creepy personal snooping machine.”
“People were looking themselves up, they were looking their ex-lovers up. Who has been held accountable or fired as a consequence of the FBI using the FISA process as their like, creepy personal snooping machine?” the Florida congressman asked.
House Committee on the Judiciary / YouTube
Over ONE MILLION FISA queries were conducted ILLEGALLY under FBI Director Wray’s watch. No one has been held responsible or accountable.
President Trump was handed a 37-count indictment over a paperwork dispute.
TWO-TIER INJUSTICE SYSTEM! pic.twitter.com/jQRSE0fKN6
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 12, 2023
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), questioned the FBI’s previous purchasing of Americans’ private data through data brokers, which has been criticized as a run around Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches.
Wray largely dodged Jayapal’s questions, saying that the FBI’s subject matter experts would be able to better explain this practice to her:
C-SPAN
In a moment of bipartisanship, Gaetz cheered Jayapal’s grilling of Wray.
“That was terrific,” Gaetz said.
A rare moment of bipartisanship during the contentious Judiciary hearing with FBI Director Wray: After Rep. JAYAPAL questions Wray on FBI collecting Americans’ commercial data, Rep. GAETZ walks over to her and says, “That was terrific.”
— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) July 12, 2023
Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH) and Sara Jacobs (D-CA) introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would bar the federal government from buying Americans’ private information.
Jordan told Breitbart News in an interview in June that his “number one goal” this year is to block the reauthorization of Section 702.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3