Thursday, March 12, 2020

FISA court axed -- for now

President Trump turned up pressure on the Senate to get busy investigating the security system's attempt to depose him from office -- implying he might sideline the FISA renewal bill until promised congressional inquiries take place.

Trump tweeted yesterday,
Many Republican Senators want me to Veto the FISA Bill until we find out what led to, and happened with, the illegal attempted “coup” of the duly elected President of the United States, and others!
At present, federal prosecutor John Durham is looking into activities surrounding Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants that were used to conduct surveillance of the Trump campaign and of Trump's White House after he took office. The Justice Department inspector general found 17 grave errors committed during the FBI counterintelligence investigation of Trump's aides.

Published reports say Senators Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., urged Trump to veto the surveillance measure, which dies Sunday. The Senate left town yesterday without acting on the House bill, which supposedly had bipartisan support. Critics blasted the reauthorization, charging that the "reforms" were cosmetic and would not prevent abuse of Fourth Amendment rights in future.

Though Trump's tweet might be interpreted to mean that no final action should be taken on the surveillance bill before Durham's findings become known, a complementary possibility is that he was signaling Sen. Lindsey Graham, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that Graham is expected to fulfill his pledge to hold investigative hearings concerning FISA abuses and the Russia hoax.

Graham has numbered among those who came out in favor of reauthorizing FISA without any substantial reforms. Another who opposed legislative FISA reform was Paul's fellow Kentuckian, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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