by Kyle Becker at Becker News
The Federal Bureau of Investigation knowingly violated the Constitution to track down potential ‘racially motivated violent extremists.’ But the FBI didn’t conduct its unconstitutional dragnet following the January 6th Capitol riots, it actually started its probe in November — in the midst of a contested election.
A newly declassified report shows that the FBI pursued extremists in November that would fit the profile of future Capitol rioters by tapping into a National Security Agency database that trawls and records Americans’ communications.
“The FBI’s requests for access to masses of electronic communications harvested by the National Security Agency (NSA) is revealed in a newly declassified report from the United States’ secret surveillance court,” the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
“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 report continued.
The declassified FISA report makes the legal procedures for targeting an actor for surveillance clear.
“NSA is the lead agency in making targeting decisions under Section 702,” the report says. “It may not task a selector without first determining that the target is reasonably believed to be a non-U.S. person outside the United States (a ‘foreignness determination’).”
The FBI is extensively using the NSA’s database for routine domestic investigations, despite knowing that the practice is illegal.
“In other words, the FBI continues to perform warrantless searches through the NSA’s most sensitive databases—the ones the NSA is not required to get warrants before filling with communications information—for routine criminal investigations that are supposed to require warrants,” the Daily Beast reported.
While such reports focus on the extent that the FBI violated civil liberties, the rule of law, and Constitutional restrictions against illegal search and seizure, there is the matter of timing that makes them even more explosive…
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