FBI closes unit that watched for misuse of national security surveillance to spy on Americans

Yahoo

20-05-2025

The FBI has closed its unit that serves as an internal watchdog for the misuse of national security surveillance to watch citizens, according to The New York Times.
The Office of Internal Auditing was recently closed by Director Kash Patel. The office was created under Donald Trump in his first term to make sure warrantless wiretaps were being used properly.
The move comes as Congress is debating whether to reauthorize Section 702 of FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows for warrantless wiretapping. Overseeing the legislation was the primary focus of the office. Critics of the law may now argue that the legislation should be scrapped or curtailed as the office managing it has been shuttered. They may also say that Congress should let the law expire. It was extended to April 2026 last year.
While Patel has in the past heavily criticized the FBI for the alleged abuse of the surveillance legislation, he said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate that it was an important tool to collect foreign intelligence for the protection of national security.
The office was closed as part of a wider reorganization, The Times reported. The duties of the Office of Internal Auditing, as well as the Office of Integrity and Compliance, which worked to make sure staff followed laws and regulations, have been taken on by the inspection division. It's an internal affairs unit that reviews agent shootings and misconduct allegations.
FBI searches for information about Americans under Section 702 have dropped significantly, according to an annual report released this month by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. While the FBI used 5,518 query terms, such as email addresses and phone numbers, about Americans in 2024, the agency used 57,094 terms in 2023 and 119,383 in 2022.
The national security division and the Department of Justice inspector general also review the FBI's FISA use compliance.
Becoming law in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires the FBI to go to a special court to get warrants when conducting wiretapping operations on American soil for investigations into people thought to be spies or foreign terrorists.
Congress added an exception in 2008, Section 702, which allowed the government to gather, without court orders, the messages of foreigners abroad even when they were speaking to Americans.
The politics of the issue changed as President Donald Trump grew hostile to the FBI following an investigation into the connections between Russia and his 2016 campaign in the midst of Russian election interference.
Patel rose to prominence on the right as a congressional staffer on the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 when he took aim at FISA applications that the FBI submitted to request permission from a court to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser during the investigation into the connections to Russia. The narrative aided Trump as he claimed the investigation was a 'hoax' perpetrated by the 'deep state.'
Many of the claims pushed by Patel that year were false or misleading. However, an inspector general found different issues with the FBI's FISA applications during the Russia probe in December 2019. Audits discovered agents and analysts crossed the line several times when looking for information about Americans.
The Office of Internal Auditing was created by Attorney General Bill Barr and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray in 2020.
'Chris Wray was caught last year illegally using 702 collection methods against Americans 274,000 times,' Patel said on a rightwing podcast in November 2024 as he slammed Congress for reauthorizing the use of Section 702.
Patel seemed to be referencing a FISA court opinion from 2023 stating that there had been 278,000 bad queries of information under Section 702 by agents and analysts at the agency over the course of a number of years, including before internal changes to restrict the use of the section. The court was using information from the Office of Internal Auditing.
Patel was pushed on his previous statements during his Senate confirmation hearing in late January. He claimed that he supported the preservation of Section 702 and that recent changes made 'go a long way.'
Calling the section a 'critical tool,' Patel went on to say that he was 'proud of the reforms that have been implemented' and that he was 'proud to work with Congress' to put in place more changes to its use.