FBI urges employees to “look for ways” to collect Americans’ messages

A Federal Bureau of Investigation official recently urged employees to “look for ways” to conduct warrantless surveillance on US residents, an internal email obtained by Wired shows. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate’s email was reportedly sent on April 20, the same day President Biden signed a bill that was criticized as a major expansion of warrantless surveillance under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Abbate’s email seems to argue that FBI employees should make frequent use of warrantless surveillance on US people in order to justify the continued existence of the program. “To continue to demonstrate why tools like this are essential to our mission, we need to use them, while also holding ourselves accountable for doing so properly and in compliance with legal requirements,” Abbate wrote, according to Wired.

Abbate oversees all FBI domestic and international investigative and intelligence activities. His email made reference to a new requirement that FBI personnel obtain prior approval from an FBI supervisor or attorney before making queries about US people.

“I urge everyone to continue to look for ways to appropriately use US person queries to advance the mission, with the added confidence that this new pre-approval requirement will help ensure that those queries are fully compliant with the law,” Abbate wrote.

The pre-approval provision in the FISA reauthorization signed by Biden has an exception allowing such queries without prior approval if “the query could assist in mitigating or eliminating a threat to life or serious bodily harm.”

The FISA reauthorization was criticized because it expands the definition of an electronic communication service provider, requiring more types of companies to provide the government with information, facilities, and assistance necessary to obtain communications.

“Pushing for more surveillance”

An FBI spokesperson told Wired that Abbate’s email “emphasized Congress’ recognition of the vital importance of FISA Section 702 to protect the American people and was sent to ensure that FBI personnel were immediately aware of, and in compliance with, the privacy enhancing changes the law has put in place.”

US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) had a different interpretation of the email, telling Wired that it “seems to show that the FBI is actively pushing for more surveillance of Americans, not out of necessity but as a default.”

We contacted the FBI and will update this article if it provides any further comment.

The Senate passed the reauthorization bill 60-34 despite some notable opposition. “Forcing ordinary Americans and small businesses to conduct secret, warrantless spying is what authoritarian countries do, not democracies,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he voted against the reauthorization “because it failed to include the most important requirement to protect Americans’ civil rights: that law enforcement get a warrant before targeting a US citizen.”

Section 702 authorizes electronic surveillance of non-US people overseas, and messages sent by US people to foreigners can be collected in the process. The official summary of the reauthorization bill noted that “information about US persons may incidentally be acquired by this type of surveillance and subsequently searched or ‘queried’ under certain circumstances.”