That was FBI Director Christopher Wray's response to questioning from U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock at the House Judiciary Committee on July 13 about whether the Justice Department and FBI utilize parallel construction - where law enforcement agencies are handed information obtained from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants or via warrantless surveillance by intelligence agencies, not unlike the FISA surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016 that became the Russiagate counterintelligence and eventually criminal investigation - and then act on it.
In Section 504 allowed intelligence agencies to share information obtained under FISA with law enforcement: "Section 504-which is not subject to sunset-buttressed section 218 by specifically amending FISA to allow intelligence officials conducting FISA surveillances or searches to 'consult' with federal law enforcement officials to 'coordinate' efforts to investigate or protect against international terrorism, espionage, and other foreign threats to national security, and to clarify that such coordination 'shall not' preclude the certification of a 'significant' foreign intelligence purpose or the issuance of an authorization order by the FISA court."
There are clear cut and yet constitutionally suspect provisions of law, and admissions by officials, that allow intelligence and electronic surveillance under FISA and the so-called "FISA database" to be used for law enforcement purposes.
What is the FISA database, something obliquely and repeatedly referenced by members of Congress in questioning Wray? Since, FISA is used for electronic surveillance, we have to assume that it is a database of electronic surveillance for anyone that's ever been targeted under FISA, their contacts and presumably their contacts' contacts, and so forth.
That is how Wray can likely get away with saying "Not to my knowledge" in response to a direct question about whether and how the Justice Department and FBI use intelligence and surveillance information to produce criminal investigations, even though just two decades ago, the Justice Department and FBI were proud of the provisions of the Patriot Act that tore down the "Wall" between intelligence and law enforcement.
On May 2, 2014, CNN's Carol Costello followed up with Clemente, with Clemente doubling down on the claim, stating, "On the national security side of the house, in the federal government, you know, we have assets. There are lots of assets at our disposal throughout the intelligence community and also not just domestically but overseas. Those assets allow us to gain information intelligence on things that we can't use ordinarily in a criminal investigation, but are used for major terrorism investigations or counter intelligence investigations."
Although both former FBI Director Mueller and later the current FBI Director Wray claim to be unfamiliar with the term parallel construction in using intelligence and electronic surveillance in formulating criminal cases once defined, being out of office, Mueller gave an honest answer about how he viewed the practice, and Wray when pressed if the FBI utilizes the tactic says "Not to my knowledge" but offered he'd look into it.
No comments:
Post a Comment