The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s access to a controversial intelligence trove of intercepted emails, texts, and other electronic data should be curtailed following serial missteps that have damaged public and congressional trust in the surveillance tool, a White House panel of intelligence advisers has concluded. in July 2023. The recommendation and others made by the panel come as a challenge to the Biden administration, which has spent months aggressively lobbying lawmakers to preserve the spying program, which is set to expire at the end of 2023. At issue is the FBI’s access to a cache of data collected under what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.(FISA)..Top Biden administration officials have said the program—classified details of which were revealed 10 years ago by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden—is among the most vital national security tools in their possession, critical to preventing terrorism, thwarting cyberattacks and understanding the aims of adversaries such as China and Russia. It allows the National Security Agency to siphon streams of electronic data from U.S. technology providers such as Meta and Apple. The data, collected in intelligence repositories, can then be searched without a warrant by spy agencies including the FBI, which has a robust counterintelligence mission.

The board was critical of the FBI’s history of wrongfully plumbing American data in the Section 702 trove, which have included improper searches of George Floyd protesters and sitting lawmakers, and said reforms needed to be adopted and codified in law.

Excerpts from Dustin Volz, FBI Access to Spying Tool Should Be Restricted, Panel Advises, WSJ, July 31, 2023
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