Latest in FISA
David Kris, whom the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appointed as amicus curiae to review the FBI's filing before the court regarding FBI and Justice Department practices in filing FISA warrants, has filed a letter brief with the court in response to the FBI's submission. The brief is available here and below.
The FBI has filed a response to the order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) requesting further information on FBI and Justice Department practices in filing FISA warrants before the court in the wake of the Justice Department inspector general's report identifying failures in the Carter Page FISA application. The document is available here.
Five observations about the Department of Justice Inspector General's report on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
What should we make of the Department of Justice Inspector General’s analysis of the FBI’s role in preparing FISA requests?
Attorney General Bill Barr, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham, FBI Director Christopher Wray and President Donald Trump have each released statements about the release of the Justice Department's inspector general's report into the Russia investigation. Those statements are available below.
On Monday, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General released a report on its review of the four FISA applications and other aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation, which explored any possible coordination or connection between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election. The document is available here and below.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released partially redacted documents related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s (FISC) authorization of the 2018 certifications under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FISC initially approved most parts of the certification, but ruled that other aspects of the FBI protocols concerning information regarding U.S. persons were inadequate.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on "Oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. The hearing will feature testimony from Brad Wiegmann, Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice, National Security Division; Michael Orlando, Deputy Assistant Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counterterrorism Division; and Susan Morgan from the National Security Agency.
Just before John Brennan ended his term as director of the CIA in 2017, his agency issued a new set of guidelines under Executive Order (EO) 12333, the general charter that governs the intelligence community. Entitled “Central Intelligence Agency Intelligence Activities: Procedures Approved by the Attorney General Pursuant to Executive Order 12333,” the guidelines received little attention.
Welcome to part one of a two-part deep-dive series concerning FISA! In this episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck begin with the history and context leading up to the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and then explain the central features of the statute and some of the key issues that arose during its first two decades. Part two (episode 97), which carries the story forward to the present, will post tomorrow!
Oh, hey, while we have your attention: Yes, there was another two-week extension in Doe v. Mattis.