Senate panel urged to renew US global surveillance power

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray pressed a Senate committee yesterday to renew the authority of the US government to conduct warrantless surveillance outside the United States, arguing that failing to do so would be “devastating” to law enforcement’s ability to counter cyber and terrorism threats.
Wray said that the sweeping surveillance powers authorised under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire at the end of this month, are vital to US national security.
“The expiration of our 702 authorities would be devastating to the FBI’s ability to protect Americans from those threats,” Wray said at a hearing of the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Stripping the FBI of its 702 authorities would be a form of unilateral disarmament,” Wray said, citing threats from Iran and China.
The surveillance power of the US government has come under scrutiny from US lawmakers on both the right and left in recent years, particularly the ability of federal law enforcement to search for data on US citizens picked up as part of surveillance of foreign targets.
A bipartisan team of US lawmakers introduced legislation last month to impose new limits on searches of Americans’ communications and prohibit so-called “backdoor” searches which invoke foreign intelligence justifications to spy on Americans.
US officials have opposed new warrant requirements, arguing that information collected under the law has been vital to countering cyber threats and thwarting foreign intelligence operations directed against the United States.
Wray told the Senate panel that the FBI will be “good stewards of our authorities”, citing reforms that he said the FBI has already made in response to criticism of law enforcement’s use of the law.
Republican Senator Mike Lee accused the FBI of ignoring existing warrant requirements under the law and expressed skepticism about the FBI’s internal reforms.
“It’s never different,” Lee said. “You haven’t changed.”
During the hearing, Wray confirmed that the FBI involved the Justice Department’s internal watchdog in its review of a former senior counterintelligence agent who has pleaded guilty to working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
The agent, Charles McGonigal, is scheduled to be sentenced this month.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department’s inspector-general did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wray, an appointee of Republican former president Donald Trump, faced questions from several Republican senators over the continuing investigation of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
Republicans, citing testimony from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers who worked on the probe, accused Wray of permitting political bias.
“Not that I have experienced,” Wray said when asked if there had been political interference in the investigation.