Posted on 05/27/2020 7:39:55 AM PDT by RandFan
The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it opposes House-proposed changes to surveillance reform legislation and will urge President Trump to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
The statement, from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, is the latest setback for the legislation, which is currently scheduled to get a vote on the House floor on Wednesday, after Trump on Tuesday night urged GOP opposition to vote against it.
The veto threat from the Justice Department is a marked shift from March, when Attorney General William Barr helped negotiate the initial version of the bill with House leadership. The bill was then approved by the House in a 278-136 vote.
The bill reauthorizes three surveillance programs and makes some changes to the court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But the Senate, when it took up the bill earlier this month, added language to create new legal protections for some FISA warrant applications, a change that garnered pushback from the Justice Department.
Boyd said on Wednesday that the Justice Department had offered "specific fixes to the most significant problems" stemming from the changes made by the Senate but signaled that they had been ignored by House lawmakers.
Instead, the House will vote on an additional amendment to the legislation as part of its debate on Wednesday that would tighten the limits on the FBI’s ability to access Americans’ web browsing history.
Boyd warned that the Justice Department believes the proposed change from the House would "weaken national security tools while doing nothing to address the abuses identified by the DOJ Inspector General."
"The Department opposes the Senate-passed bill in its current form and also opposes the Lofgren amendment in the House," he said, referring to a sponsor of the measure, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).
"Given the cumulative negative effect of these legislative changes on the Department’s ability to identify and track terrorists and spies, the Department must oppose the legislation now under consideration in the House. If passed, the Attorney General would recommend that the President veto the legislation," he added.
The Justice Department opposition comes as the surveillance reform bill is facing fresh opposition from both sides ahead of the House vote, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) urging Democrats to delay the vote on the bill following Trump's tweet.
In his tweet, Trump referenced what he has cast as a conspiracy against his administration by the Obama administration.
“I hope all Republican House Members vote NO on FISA until such time as our Country is able to determine how and why the greatest political, criminal, and subversive scandal in USA history took place!” Trump tweeted.
A Justice Department inspector general investigation completed last year faulted the FBI for errors and omissions in surveillance applications used to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the bureau’s investigation into Russian interference.
The internal watchdog review did not find evidence that agents were motivated by bias in their decisions to open investigations into Trump campaign associates, however, undermining a key talking point of Trump and his GOP allies.
Notice what the Hill wrote ...
“In his tweet, Trump referenced what he has cast as a conspiracy against his administration by the Obama administration.”
“What he has cast”... like only POTUS is making an accusation .... after all that came out ..., the Hill cannot even make a factual statement like “...government documents reveal that the obozo administration used FISA, perhaps illegally, to surveille the Trump 2016 campaign using documents paid for by HRC.”
Ah ... FReepers who only read the headlines vs FReepers that actually read the excerpt. More popcorn please.
The media are horrible and dishonest.
They will not give credit for this.
Yet it’s the right thing to do. 100%!
I will give Trump credit.
If we are to remain a free society...the deep state MUST BE exposed first before reauthorizing.
Let’s talk about both.
Most people are capable of tracking more than one issue at a time. Most on FR are paying attention to dozens of issues.
The veto is coming and we’ll take it! :)
... Was a little sarcastic ... the sponsor was enough to veto was my point - not caring who wrote what ...
My reading of this is that the DOJ wants Trump to veto the FISA bill because it contains too many new safeguards.
In my opinion, FISA is beyond reform.
In the aftermath of 9/11, we granted the Federal government extraordinary surveillance powers, in the belief that those powers would be used exclusively to protect us from terrorism. Within a decade these powers were used for partisan political spying, and ultimately to sabotage the peaceful transfer of power to a new President.
This is the greatest abuse of power in the history of our Republic.
As distressing as the abuse of power is the reaction of our institutions to it. Instead of acknowledging the abuse and reacting quickly to punish all involved, the DOJ, the FBI, the Inspectors General, the media and the FISA court itself have all worked to delay revealing and excuse the government spying on its political enemies.
Those institutions can never again be trusted with the powers that FISA gave them.
DOJ wants it veto’d.
Rand wants it veto’d
Three “key” provisions expire and go away.
Victory of sorts.
Indeed. Let’s see what GOP House and Senate members vote for this
awful bill.
I suspect some FReepers might side with the House if they knew the particulars. :-) Libertarians vs FBI. Even more popcorn please.
If Trump is against it.
I’m against it.
That’s all I need to read.
Are you saying believe the article more than Trump?
I trust Trump. You should too.
“...They will not give credit for this.”
They won’t even acknowledge it happened, which is far worse in my book. At a minimum, media is required not only an apology for them to do so, but to no longer allow anyone who perpetrated the political fraud, lies and crimes to ever be treated with legitimacy. Of course they won’t.
By a Trump veto, it keeps the issue front and center. It will be difficult for them to report why, but they will work hard to make sure the sheeple do not know why.
I will remain opposed even when POTUS one day signs the bill essentially intact.
“That’s all I need to read”.
Weird.
“As distressing as the abuse of power is the reaction of our institutions to it. Instead of acknowledging the abuse and reacting quickly to punish all involved, the DOJ, the FBI, the Inspectors General, the media and the FISA court itself have all worked to delay revealing and excuse the government spying on its political enemies.
Those institutions can never again be trusted with the powers that FISA gave them.”
Exactly right. They need to earn the trust back, severe punishment of the criminals will be a step in that direction. Certain members of Congress resigning would also help.
“Awesome...now lets shine a light on FISA abuse rather than talk about Joe Scarborough. Please.”
Trolls share your concern.
Not sure of the name, but it looks like he plays the bagpipes :)
I keep thinking that I’m missing something. Doesn’t the article say that Justice doesn’t like it because it cracks down on them too much (by requiring warrants)?
Trump is the biggest victim of this hoax.
If he is not happy with it for whatever his reason,
so am I. I would happy if they trashed the whole thing for good.
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