FBI director Kash Patel has closed an internal watchdog office tasked with ensuring compliance with surveillance rules.
Patel helped spur the creation of the Office of Internal Auditing he's now closing when he attacked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, applications seeking court permission to wiretap a former Donald Trump campaign adviser during he Russia investigation, and his latest move comes as Congress considers whether to reauthorize a high-profile warrantless wiretapping law, reported the New York Times.
"The move is significant because it could give skeptics of the program new ammunition to argue that Congress should sharply curtail the law or even let it expire given that a guardrail has been discarded," the Times reported. "It also poses a crucial test for Mr. Patel, who rose in pro-Trump circles by attacking the F.B.I. over its abuses of the surveillance law but said during his confirmation hearing that he saw the program as a vital tool for gathering foreign intelligence and protecting national security."
Many of the claims Patel made as a congressional staffer in 2018 about FISA proved to be false or misleading, but an inspector general found different problems in the FBI's application process during the Russia probe in a follow-up audit in 2019, and the following year then-attorney general William Barr and then-FBI director Christopher Wray established the stand-alone Office of Internal Auditing.
"The F.B.I. did not comment," the Times reported. "But the closure was part of a larger reorganization, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. The functions of the office, along with another, the Office of Integrity and Compliance, which helps ensure that employees comply with laws, regulations and policies in general, have been absorbed by the inspection division."
FISA was enacted in 1978 and requires the FBI to obtain warrants from a special court to conduct surveillance against suspected spies or terrorists on U.S. soil, and Congress added the Section 702 exception in 2008 allowing the government to collect communications of foreigners abroad without court orders, even when those targets are communicating with Americans.
Patel harshly criticized the bureau's use of the 702 exception during Wray's tenure, although the Times noted that some of his evidence was inaccurate, but he expressed general support for Section 702 during his confirmation hearings in January and said he would go further to ensure public trust as director.
“702 is a critical tool, and I’m proud of the reforms that have been implemented and I’m proud to work with Congress moving forward to implement more reforms,” he said at the time.
