Posted on 02/28/2020 7:30:07 AM PST by yesthatjallen
President Trump is threatening to blow up an extension of expiring intelligence programs as he backchannels with a cadre of top allies who want to use the bill to reform a shadowy surveillance court.
Congress has approximately 10 working days to reauthorize three expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act, a 2015 bill that overhauled the countrys surveillance laws, with Attorney General William Barr and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) backing a clean extension.
But Trump threw a grenade into those already fragile plans Thursday, when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told reporters that the president supports his effort to include broader reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as part of any reauthorization of the intelligence programs.
Ive talked to the president, and I plan on insisting on getting a vote, Paul said, asked by The Hill about including broader FISA reforms in a bill would authorize the expiring provisions of the USA Freedom Act.
Paul wants a vote on an amendment that would prevent FISA warrants from being used against Americans. Pauls proposal would also prevent FISA information from being used against Americans in a domestic courtroom. The president, according to Paul, is supportive of his amendment.
SNIP
If we don't fix FISA now, it will never be fixed, said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). This is our opportunity. This is our chance.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
And WHO is going to do that?
That collection of politicians, staffers, bureaucrats and various hangers on that we call the government but is, in truth, the actual "Deep State"?!?
LOL!!!!!!
The Act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and enabled it to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies (primarily the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency) against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the U.S. The court is staffed by eleven judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve seven-year terms.
Proceedings before the FISA court are ex parte and non-adversarial. The court hears evidence presented solely by the Department of Justice. There is no provision for a release of information regarding such hearings, or for the record of information actually collected. The USA Freedom Act (Section 402), however, requires the government to declassify and publicly release “to the greatest extent practicable” each order, decision and opinion of the court if it contains a “significant construction or interpretation of law.”
The problem with dramatically changing the purpose of the court from use in our justice system is to, basically, erase the purpose of it. It is designed, as laid out above as a legal way to determine the illegalities of practicing foreign intelligence officers. As has been identified, there was no evidence for them to authorize surveillance on Trump or his representatives and the court should never have allowed the surveillance to be authorized. If the FISA had been used in cases like the Biden case concerning the protection of his son, or the Clinton gold mining of the Haitian funds, as there was plenty of evidence on both, it would have been used properly. It could even have been used to determine the illegalities of the Obama birth certificate as they would have been able to investigate much further into the questions still unanswered. So dont change it, use it properly.
rwood
Don’t fix it, kill it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amen.
The Uniparty does not want one of their tools of control removed from them.
“Foreign Intelligence” is right there in the name of the court. They have no business authorizing domestic spying.
However, without the FISA application, would we ever know about the spying on the Trump campaign? They would have just farmed out the surveillance to foreign allies and there would have been no warrant and no paper trail.
An amendment can authorize a certain class of naturalized citizens to be exempt from the Rand amendment. Also the FBI still has jurisdiction if there was an FBI that could be trusted.
Reform and jail time are not mutually exclusive. There is no reason both cannot proceed.
Scalise is saying, and I agree, that if people don’t go to jail, then those that inherit the powers will know there are no consequences for deceptive cleverness in abusing the process.
Deep State and terrorists are not mutually exclusive.
I doubt that would work. The “defense attorney” would still be paid by the state, so the state would in actuality be their client, so the state is whose interests they would be protecting.
Seriously, Best President Ever.
Barr not only looks like he is part of the swamp, he’s the deepest of deep staters.
Read all about him in the Randy Weaver family murder case...he personally defended the murdering FBI agents when the state (Montana, Idaho..sorry I can’t remember which) pressed murder charges, under the theory that FBI agents are given immunity from state charges.
How’s that for being deep state?
Just give him permanent whistle bl;ower status. LOL.
Agree. To an outlaw, a law is just so many words on a piece of paper.
And the Constitution was written for gentlemen. It is ludicrous to think that the current crop of “resisters” would honor it.
The changes need to be encapsulated into law and not mere rule making changes as rules are, pardon the pun "made to be broken", whenever it suits the AG's whim or when another AG comes along and doesn't agree with the non binding rules.
Put the changes into legislation where at least it has a chance of being used to prosecute deep swamp abusers and put the FISA courts under more scrutiny and non secretive control. Good intentions just don't get it anymore these days. I don't agree with Sen Rand Paul very often but this is one time that I do agree with him completely, changes are begging out loud to be made to the abusive FISA courts and its players.
Yeah!
Too bad it can’t be made retroactive. But weren’t there already laws in place to prevent spying on Americans?
Get rid of the Patriot Act while you’re at it also Mr President. That abomination should’ve never been allowed to happen.
Yep, it should be explicit law, not some agency rules to bend whichever way the wind blows.
But werent there already laws in place to prevent spying on Americans?
FBI - domestic
CIA - international
??? - military
etc.
Either the FISA process is corrected to exclude spying on US citizens or it should be disbanded. The FBI and CIA used the process in an effort to commit a coup against a president. Maybe it should just be ended for that. The government has proven it is unable to be trusted with such power.
get rid of secret courts in America!
The scumbag pols, including McConnell and Graham, are tying the FISA renewal to Coronavirus legislation, to force Trump to renew it.
This tells you where these dirty swamp creatures are coming from and who they really are.
They want carte blanche to violate your 4th amendment rights and to spy on you and sell and trade the secrets for fun and profit. They are addicted to power and their insider games.
9-11 made it so you will never get that choice. Big Brother is here to stay.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.