Former FBI Director James Comey urged Congress to reauthorize a controversial government surveillance tool set to expire next week.
“Thoughtful leaders on both sides of the aisle know FISA section 702 is a vital and carefully overseen tool to protect this country. This isn’t about politics. Congress must reauthorize it,” Comey tweeted Thursday.
Thoughtful leaders on both sides of the aisle know FISA section 702 is a vital and carefully overseen tool to protect this country. This isn’t about politics. Congress must reauthorize it.— James Comey (@Comey) January 11, 2018
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows for the monitoring of non-U.S. citizens abroad.
The House is expected to vote on a bill reauthorizing Section 702 for six years on Thursday. But President Trump caused confusion earlier Thursday when he seemed to criticize FISA in a morning tweet—splitting from the administration’s support for reauthorization of Section 702.
“This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phone Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?” Trump tweeted.
In a second tweet posted nearly two hours later, Trump seemed to reverse course.
“With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking off and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!” he said.