How Intelligence Monitoring Really Works - It's Not How Trump Thinks
So, if the government is interested in communications between two points, and one of those points is controlled by a U.S. citizen, it's very difficult to monitor the devices owned by that citizen legally. However, it's not so difficult to get a warrant to monitor the other end, if that device is not owned by a U.S. citizen.
So, if you want to see if the U.S. citizen is communicating with a non-citizen, you tap the phone or intercept the IP address owned by the non-citizen. That way, you are not violating the privacy rights of the US citizen. If that US citizen is communicating with the non-citizen's device that is a voluntary choice. You are monitoring the non-citizen connection, not the US connection.
So, for example, if there is a computer in some place in the US, say at Trump Tower, exchanging financial transactions, say with a bank in Cyprus, you don't monitor the IP address of the US-based computer. Instead, you monitor the IP address of the computer in Cyprus. If, by chance, you see illegal transactions from a US-based computer, that's OK, and that information is usable.
That's how this whole FISA thing works. You get a warrant to monitor communications to and from the computer or phone on the other end of the conversation, the end not owned by a U.S. citizen or not in this country. If someone here is doing something illegal with someone there, you might see that. But you aren't seeing any other communications from the US citizen. You're just seeing the ones with the monitored device.
That's how that works.
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