Trump eyes FISA vote, asking if it was used to ‘so badly’ surveil campaign

President TrumpDonald John TrumpHouse Democrat slams Donald Trump Jr. for ‘serious case of amnesia’ after testimony Skier Lindsey Vonn: I don’t want to represent Trump at Olympics Poll: 4 in 10 Republicans think senior Trump advisers had improper dealings with Russia MORE early Thursday ripped the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) ahead of the House vote to reauthorize a key provision of the law, saying it could have been used to spy on his campaign. 

"'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.' This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?" the president tweeted. 

 

“House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.” This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018

The president's tweet comes as the House on Thursday is set to vote on a controversial renewal of what's known as Section 702 of FISA. It is also expected to vote on a bipartisan amendment imposing restrictions designed to protect Americans who are swept up in government spying on foreigners overseas.

Trump's White House, however, has been aggressively lobbying for the renewal of the authority, which the intelligence community maintains is critical to identifying and disrupting terror plots. In a statement late Wednesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration "strongly opposes" the privacy amendment and called for it to be rejected.

"This amendment would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security," Sanders said. "The Administration urges the House to reject this amendment and preserve the useful role FISA’s Section 702 authority plays in protecting American lives."

Section 702 allows the NSA to collect texts and emails of foreigners abroad without an individualized warrant, even when they communicate with Americans in the U.S. Some Republicans have speculated that the Obama administration learned of former national security advisor Michael Flynn's calls with the Russian ambassador through Section 702.

The bill the White House has been whipping would require the FBI to obtain a court order before reviewing the content of queries for Americans’ information in the database — though an order would not be required to search the database in the first place — and allow such an order only when investigators want to use the information in a criminal case.

The top Judiciary Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), has called the reform a “fig leaf” — national security cases account for the vast majority of queries, and the change would also not prevent authorities from using information obtained in the course of a national security investigation to start a criminal investigation later.

The privacy amendment that the White House said in its statement that it opposes would replace the entire text of that legislation with one of the most reform-heavy proposals put forward. It would require investigators to obtain a warrant in order to search the 702 database for Americans’ information in criminal cases.

--This report was updated at 8:33 a.m.