Give us the power to continue spying on American political opponents of the Democrat Party, or else we'll blame you when the terrorists we should be surveilling strike.
FBI Director Christopher Wray pleaded with lawmakers on Tuesday to continue funding a controversial surveillance tool of the U.S. government.
Wray testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning. In his opening remarks, he urged Congress to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which has been both credited with preventing terror attacks on U.S. soil and accused of being a vehicle for spying on U.S. citizens.
The law lets the government keep tabs on specific foreign nationals outside the country without first obtaining a warrant to do so, even if the party on the other side of those communications is an American on U.S. soil. The program will expire at the end of this year if not reauthorized by Congress.
"The expiration of our 702 authorities would be devastating to the FBI's ability to protect Americans," Wray told Senate lawmakers.
He said the FBI is aware of a "steady drumbeat" of calls for attacks by foreign terrorist organizations since Hamas massacred more than 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7. Section 702, Wray argued, is an "indispensable" tool to combat terror threats by allowing the government "to stay a step ahead of foreign actors located outside the United States who pose a threat to national security."
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Wray testified that stripping the FBI of its 702 surveillance powers would be akin to "unilateral disarmament" in the face of growing threats from Iran and China.
However, critics on the right and left claim the program encroaches on Americans' civil liberties, specifically if the FBI conducts warrantless surveillance on communications between Americans and foreign nationals.
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Wray argued against any attempt by lawmakers to restrict the FBI's surveillance authority, which he compared to the "pre-9/11-style wall" that prevented U.S. intelligence agencies from sharing information that could have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
"If that's the path chosen, what are we going to say to the family whose loved one's care was sabotaged when a hospital was taken offline by a foreign adversary and the FBI wasn't able to stop the cyber attack? What's the justification for not using every lawful tool to stop China from stealing our technology and undermining our freedoms? Because I can assure you the PRC is not holding back or tying its own hands behind its back," he said.
Christopher Wray insists that he has new "policies" that will prevent the same FOIA abuses as we saw in Russiagate -- but refuses to tell the Senate what these policies are, and refuses to tell the Senate if any of those abusing the system previously have been disciplined or fired. The rest of the clip is about whether the FBI's new "policies" would have stopped any of the previous abuses. Mike Lee insists they would not have stopped previous abuses, and Wray admits several times these invasions of privacy would be permitted under the new "policies."
So what kind of corrective is this? It's not a corrective. It's not intended to be. It's not intended to stop any of the past abuses, because the FBI wants to continue those abuses. They just want to pass a meaningless change and say "There we fixed it. Let us spy on the Democrat Party's political opponents in peace."
Ted Cruz blew up at Christopher Wray for refusing to answer why the FBI had refused to obtain the GPS data which would determine if Joe Biden was in fact next to Hunter Biden when Hunter Biden shook down his Chinese partners, telling him "My father is sitting right next to me" and will insure that you will regret not giving me my $10 million.
Cruz's full time here:
Christopher Wray says that no one who targeted Catholics did so "in bad faith" and some of them were Cathoics so they get a pass in targeting other Catholics and no, no one's been fired.
Despite the fact that the FBI has long ago confirmed the veracity of Hunter Biden's laptop, Christopher Wray continues refusing to acknowledge that it's real. He claims, again, that it's an "ongoing investigation" and cannot say anything about it -- despite FBI personnel previously falsely claiming the laptop was fake.
Over in the House, Byron Donald recapped some of the prior news about Biden family members receiving payoffs, then immediately wiring 10% to the Big Guy.