FBI ‘unintentionally’ spied on 278,000 Americans, says official

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate Tuesday testified before Congress that the bureau “unintentionally” made 278,000 unwarranted search requests on Americans.

A provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) referred to as Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to conduct targeted surveillance of non-US citizens overseas. Intelligence analysts run specific identifiers about the target through a database, such as a name or email address, and can then collect data on the person’s communications.

Before running any search queries, the US attorney general and national intelligence director must have first submitted a detailed request from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and received approval. 

Once approval is obtained, analysts may run certain approved queries on foreign individuals outside the United States. Each “targeting request” must then be checked for legality by a senior analyst, who in turn double-checks it with another senior analyst. The Justice Department then triple-checks the request to make sure it did not violate any procedures or regulations.

But court documents unsealed in May revealed that between 2020 and early 2021, FBI operatives ran 278,000 targeted requests on American citizens through the Section 702 database. Some were targeted “in connection with civil unrest and protests” that were plaguing the country after George Floyd’s death. Others were targeted because of their political affiliations. An FBI analyst ran a batch query on 19,000 Americans who donated to a certain political party because the party was “a target of foreign influence”.

Following January 6th, the FBI ran 23,132 search queries on Americans.

On Tuesday, Abbate told the Senate Judiciary Committee that all searches were “unintentional” while being grilled by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO).

“I also take seriously the fact that your institution has repeatedly abused its authority, has repeatedly targeted political opponents. . . . Your institution is the one that, according to the court, the FISA court, ran 278,000 unwarranted — probably illegal — queries on Americans, right? That was your institution, correct?” Hawley asked.

“With respect to the compliance incident, yes,” Abbate said.

“Compliance. You characterized the unlawful querying, 278,000 times, of American citizens as ‘compliance issues’?” Hawley pressed.

“We’ve said before, I’ve said, that [it’s] totally unacceptable,” Abbate said.

“Who’s been fired for it?” Hawley asked.

“Individuals involved are handled through the disciplinary process.”

“Who’s been fired for it?” Hawley asked again.

“In the case of the unintentional instance, where something similar happened, we have fired people in the past.”

“Wait, I’m sorry, what does that word salad mean? The ‘unintentional instance’? What does that mean? Who’s been fired for the 278,000 times that you improperly or illegally queried the database for American citizens?” Hawley pressed.

“When we find intentional incidents–” Abbate said before Hawley cut him off.

“Wait, you’re saying that the 278,000 queries were unintentional?” Hawley asked.

“I believe that’s correct.”

“Wow,” Hawley said. “278,000 times, American citizens’ information was queried by your agency unintentionally? That’s your testimony?”

“I would want to go back and check that, Senator, but yes, my understanding is that the vast majority of the–”

“Wait, but that’s different. You just said it was, you just said it was unintentional, now it’s the vast majority?” Hawley asked. “Which is it? Do you know?”

“I would want to go back and check it,” Abbate said. “My understanding is that likely all are — were unintentional,” he added.