Trump targets, then backs surveillance program in tweets
After a few confusing tweets, President Donald Trump on Thursday pushed the House to renew a critical national security program that allows spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad.
The House passed a bill to reauthorize a key foreign intelligence collection program with an important tweak. It requires the FBI to get a warrant if it wants to view the contents of Americans’ communications swept up in the process.
The House on Thursday passed what is known as Section 702 of a program that allows spy agencies to collect information on foreign targets abroad. The bill passed 256-164. The Senate must still pass the bill before it is sent to the White House for the president’s signature.
Earlier, the House rejected a measure to impose stiffer restrictions on the FBI. It would have required the FBI to get a warrant to continue even querying the database when Americans are involved.
“This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land,” Trump said in a morning tweet. “We need it! Get smart!”
But before that he sent out a tweet suggesting that the program was used to collect information that might have been used to taint his campaign.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Trump’s tweets were “inaccurate, conflicting and confusing.” He suggested that a vote on the bill should be delayed until the White House’s position can be ascertained. The Republicans said the vote should be held.
On Thursday morning, the president appeared to contradict the position of his own administration. In a tweet, he linked the FISA program that his White House supports to the dossier that alleges his campaign had ties to Russia, catching aides and Capitol Hill officials off guard. A short time later, he went further.
“‘House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,”’ Trump wrote, citing a Fox News headline. “This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phoney Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?”
Trump’s position seemed to be in opposition to the Trump administration’s position, potentially putting the reauthorization vote in doubt. His tweets came shortly after a “Fox and Friends” segment that highlighted the FISA program, calling it “controversial.” Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has also made the television rounds in recent days, has pushed for less invasive spying measures.
The tweets sent White House aides scrambling to explain the apparent about-face. The president’s reversal was yet another example of him seemingly taking cues from television, particularly the morning Fox News show, while also personalizing an issue, in this case the dossier, over a policy position.
There are no obvious links between the dossier and the reauthorization of the spying program, but Trump has repeatedly denounced the document in recent days. The president has said that his campaign and Trump Tower was spied on by the Obama administration, calling the former president a “bad (or sick) guy!” He has offered no proof for such claims.
A White House official said staffers had consulted with Trump after his initial tweets opposing the administration’s stance.
The FBI and intelligence agencies say being able to query the database is essential to keeping America safe.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that tips are flooding into the FBI by the thousands. It’s at this initial stage — where leads are sifted and prioritized — when foreign intelligence can be queried to help connect dots and spot possible national security threats, he said.
In a recent speech, Wray said: “I’m going to say this over and over and over again. Every court to look at 702 and the way it’s been used, including the FBI queries, have found it fully consistent with the Fourth Amendment.”
Lawmakers in the House are weighing whether the FBI should have to get a warrant to either query information on Americans in the database or seek a warrant only if the FBI wants to actually view the contents of the material and use it for investigating and prosecuting domestic crimes.
The Trump administration had wanted the program to be reauthorized without change, but later said it was willing to back legislation that would impose moderate restrictions on the FBI access to Americans’ communications.
The White House opposes a requirement that would require the FBI to get a warrant before even querying lawfully collected foreign intelligence for domestic cases, although not in emergencies or cases involving national security.