Barr orders more changes in FBI surveillance under FISA

[demmiblue]

Source: NBC

Attorney General William Barr ordered another round of changes Tuesday that he said are needed to avoid abuses of the law allowing the FBI to conduct secret surveillance in terrorism and foreign counterintelligence cases.

The new policies add to restrictions imposed earlier by Barr and FBI Director Chris Wray after the Justice Department inspector general concluded last year that the FBI misused the process for getting authority under FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to eavesdrop on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The Page FISA has been a rallying point for conservative opponents of the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign.

Before conducting physical searches or wiretaps of a federal election official, members of the official's staff, candidates for federal office, or their staff or advisers, the FBI must now consider giving them a "defensive briefing," to tell them that they could be the target of foreign influence. Such a step, Barr said, would address concerns that people in the U.S. "may become unwitting participants in an effort by a foreign power to influence an election or the policy or conduct of the United States government."

Trump was given a generic defensive briefing by the FBI after he became the Republican nominee in 2016. But the FBI did not warn him that some members of his campaign were under investigation. Nor did agents confront him with their suspicions that he might have been improperly influenced by the Russian government.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/barr-orders-more-changes-fbi-surveillance-under-fisa-n1239002?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

---

Link to tweet

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Barr is Secretary of State and President now?

I missed the ceremony. When did he take office?

[Thomas Hurt]

3. Fat Himmler is Trump's Ratf**king Tsar.

[dchill]

2. As Barr well knows, the Reputin Party doesn't have "unwitting participants."

They're witting as hell.

[yaesu]

4. " needed to avoid abuses of the law" as if that pos barr ever cared about the law, the mobster is

protecting his boss.

[soothsayer]

5. That's why Barr swapped in this new guy

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214005738

Snip

Now the office is being steered by a political appointee with power to potentially influence decisions over national security policy, especially debates over "what we will and won't do overseas and at home," including in terms of secret surveillance, and when "it is and isn't appropriate" for the Justice Department to tell the public about election interference, Mulligan said.

Though a relatively small unit of fewer than two dozen attorneys, the Office of Law and Policy participates in almost every National Security Council meeting, works with congressional staff to draft new legislation, and conducts oversight of the FBI's intelligence-gathering activities.

[LudwigPastorius]

6. "...the FBI must now consider giving them a "defensive briefing,"

I suppose this means that the FBI now has to give you time to snort up all the cocaine they find you with?

...time to mulch and bury the dead body they find you with?

[PSPS]

7. IOW: No more investigating my mob.

[louzke9]

8. LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT!

Someone in government, be it an official or staff member has contacts with foreigners that the FBI suspects may be colluding with, but the FBI has to warn them FIRST, that they may be a target of foreigners because the official/staff member may not realize what he is doing? Like Mike Flynn didn't know what he was doing? Like Paul Manafort didn't know what he was doing?