Report spurs calls for FBI surveillance changes

WASHINGTON » Revelations that the FBI committed serious errors in wiretapping a former Trump campaign aide have spurred bipartisan calls for change to the government’s surveillance powers, including from some Republicans who in the past have voted to renew or expand those powers.

Anger over the errors cited in this week’s Justice Department’s inspector general’s report of the Russia investigation has produced rare consensus from Democrats and Republicans who otherwise have had sharply different interpretations of the report’s findings. The report said the FBI was justified in investigating ties between the campaign and Russia, but it criticized how the investigation was conducted.

The report cited flaws and omissions in the government’s warrant applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, documenting problems with a surveillance program that Democrats and civil libertarians have long maintained is opaque, intrusive and operates with minimal oversight. They now have been joined by Republicans who are irate that FBI officials withheld key information from judges when they applied to eavesdrop on former Carter Page, a former aide to President Donald Trump.

“I’m still trying to get my arms around the proposition that a whole bunch of conservative Republicans who’ve logged years blocking bipartisan FISA reforms are now somehow privacy hawks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D- Ore.

It’s unclear what steps, if any, Congress could or will take to rein in the FBI’s power under the surveillance law, and it remains to be seen whether outrage over the way a Trump ally was treated will extend to less overtly political investigations.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who has recommended changes, said his office will conduct an audit of how the FBI applies for warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau is making its own changes to ensure more accuracy and completeness in warrant applications. That includes tightening up layers of review and recordkeeping.

“I think we’re entrusted with very significant power and authority. The FISA statute provides the FBI with absolutely indispensable tools that keep 325 million Americans safe every day,” Wray told The Associated Press on Monday. “But with that significant power and authority comes a responsibility to be scrupulously accurate and careful, and I think that’s what the FBI does best.”

The 1978 law authorizes the FBI to seek warrants to monitor the communications of people they suspect of being agents of a foreign power, such as potential terrorists or spies. In Page’s case, officials suspected that he was being targeted for Russian government recruitment, though he never was accused by the FBI of wrongdoing. Unlike criminal wiretaps, the FBI need not have probable cause that a crime was committed.

Last year, the House Intelligence Committee gave the public an unprecedented peek into the secret process as it released dueling memos about the Page warrant, part of the partisan dispute over special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.