Mike Lee Laces Into Top FBI Official Over Agency's 'Affront To The Constitution'

Senator Lee over the past 12 and a half years I've raised significant concerns in hearing after hearing after hearing about fisa and the FBI's shocking disregard for Americans constitutional rights and civil liberties I've been given basically the same answer by FBI directors and Attorneys General and other officials during free presidential administrations involving both major political parties the answer every time is a variation more or less of the following just trust us don't worry we've got good people law-abiding people running this and we've got lots and lots of procedural safeguards in place to prevent this type of abuse that you're facing here these aren't the droids you're looking for that's what we're told here again today just uh the last 24 hours we got a new policy this one this one's finally going to fix it you tell us this one's going to do it and meanwhile what's happened well in 2019 Inspector General Horowitz issued a shocking report confirming a lot of what I had feared over the years but had found it difficult to to prove a report regarding Crossfire hurricane the FBI's secret surveillance of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and then a subsequent memorandum dealing with the FBI's failure to maintain these so-called Woods files which Woods file is basically the evidentiary record underlying a fisa order request in violation of FBI policy year after year in hearing after hearing we hear of instances of non-compliance including the disclosure just last month that the FBI illegally surveilled 19 000 donors to a Congressional Campaign Americans participating in protests in the summer of 2020 Americans who were in Washington DC on January 6 2021 and even a sitting member of Congress hundreds of thousands of searches of Americans private Communications and information are conducted each and every year without a probable cause warrant frankly without any warrant if conducted under Section 702 now let me be very clear that number should not just be going down that number should be zero every quote unquote non-compliant search involving U.S persons violates an American Citizen's constitutional rights and yet every gear the FBI claims that we should just trust the FBI to fix the problems internally well first they tell us there are no problems then they tell us we will fix them because we've got good people and we've got new policies at this time this time it's going to be different only later we find out that the FBI conducted more and more illegal searches in violation of Americans constitutional rights then the last time we addressed the issue so it's hard not to conclude that the only thing the FBI wishes it could fix here is the possibility of getting caught this is what I find so insufferable this is what I find so incredibly insulting look I I want to Echo Senator blumen's thaw's point a minute ago and I hope every American can can take note of this this feature of this this is unlike other court proceedings we call it a court and yet it doesn't have any of the trappings of an ordinary Court there is no adversarial process we're told a moment ago by Mr Olsen that it's okay it's okay because the fisa court has the ability to appoint an amicus anytime it feels necessary to do so well why not in every case and even if there is an amicus what interest does the Amicus have that's on par with the individuals affected the bottom line is you collect all this data and then after you store all that data some of it involving Communications the content of individual individual phone calls emails text messages whatever it is the content not just the metadata but the content you can do a backdoor search on that without a warrant predicated on probable cause that is itself an affront of the Constitution that is itself something that is always going to lead to constitutional violations and it must stop we've got an opportunity this year to make necessary reforms and we must do it but while we've got you here Mr Olsen uh and Mr Abate why should we ever trust the FBI and the doj when it comes to this issue uh whether under the current Administration or under a future leadership why should we ever trust the FBI and the doj again to police themselves under fisa when they've shown us repeatedly for more than a decade that they cannot be trusted to do so Senator thank you for uh the question obviously section 702 is an invaluable intelligence tool that's beyond dispute it's also one that it's very powerful and it must be used responsibly and I I share the frustration that you express with the lack of compliance that we've seen in past years from the FBI I'm not here to defend those compliance problems what I can tell you is that those compliance problems predate some of the very significant changes that the FBI has put in place I will not say that compliance problems will be zero next year we are not saying it as I think you mentioned that we'd say we're done this is an ongoing process we will continue to try to improve we will work with you and your staff and other members of Congress to make sure that we're implementing procedures and policies training and other measures to continue to drive down these errors and compliance problems but in the end the tool itself is so incredibly important to our National Security that I believe that's its essential Effectiveness must be preserved Mr Robotic Senator thank you uh I share your concerns as well and I take this seriously and with regard to the fisa 702 since I've been in this role and under the leadership of director Ray we've made significant changes ones that have never been named before and there has been a lot of progress but we're not uh going to rest on our Laurels we're going to keep driving ahead continue to implement reforms as required taking guidance and counsel from the committee and other members with regard to Crossfire hurricane what happened there was wholly unacceptable uh we agree with the findings set forth by Inspector General Horowitz and special counsel Durham we've acknowledged that in the past and going that's 2017 and earlier that conduct occurred not under direct array's leadership or when I was in this position we have an entirely new leadership team we've implemented very strong corrective actions the poor decision making the grave errors of judgment the misconduct the lack of rigor investigatively that occurred there totally unacceptable we rejected we hold people accountable for that now and everything that we've done on the work on the mission since that time we've worked to avoid those mistakes and apply the Lessons Learned of the past and anyone we find who goes against that they are not going to work in the FBI and they will be held accountable for that period great to know Congress has got to fix this problem and stop trusting the surveillance state to fix it it can't it won't we know that because it thank you Senator Lee Senator hirona thank you Mr chairman Mr chairman I share your concerns about the

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Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 13 2023