Watchdog reviews complaint about FBI surveillance warrant

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is reviewing a former Boeing engineer’s allegations that he was unfairly investigated by the FBI on suspicion that he was spying for China, according to correspondence and court filings reviewed by The Associated Press. It’s the latest challenge related to secretive surveillance powers used in some terrorism and espionage cases.

The inspector general review is unfolding amid broader scrutiny of the FBI’s process for applying for court-authorized surveillance in national security investigations. Errors in applications submitted during the Russia investigation of Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, as well as in a larger sample of applications subsequently scrutinized by the watchdog office, have spurred bipartisan concerns about government surveillance powers and yielded rare alignment from pro-security and proprivacy voices in Congress.

Concerns about the accuracy of surveillance applications sought under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, were a prominent theme in Monday’s confirmation hearing of attorney general nominee Merrick Garland. Under repeated questioning from Republican senators, Garland stressed his belief in the need to be “careful” and precise in representations made in applications.

At issue in this case is a warrant the FBI obtained in 2014 from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to search the computers of Keith Gartenlaub as agents investigated whether he had leaked to the Chinese design plans for a C-17 military cargo plane.

Gartenlaub has denied that accusation and was never charged with any espionage-related crimes, but federal prosecutors did bring child pornography charges after finding images on his hard drive. He was convicted in federal court in California and sentenced to more than three years in prison.

He has long maintained his innocence, insisting that the files were not his, were never opened and date to a period in his life when numerous people had access to his computer while he lived at a beach house. In any event, he argues, the FBI had no basis to search his computers in the first place since there was no evidence he had conspired with China.