F.B.I. Violated Surveillance Program Rules, Court Ruling Says
F.B.I. analysts improperly used a warrantless surveillance program to search for information about hundreds of Americans who came under scrutiny in connection with two politically charged episodes of civil unrest: the protests after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a newly declassified court ruling shows.
While the F.B.I. has tightened restrictions since then, the disclosure of the misuses is likely to provide fodder to critics of the program from both ends of the political spectrum as the Biden administration seeks to persuade Congress to renew it.
The surveillance program, known as Section 702, empowers the government to collect, without a warrant and from American companies like Google and AT&T, the communications of foreigners abroad who are targeted for intelligence purposes — even when they are talking with or about Americans.
Source: The New York Times
