FBI eliminates internal audit office that reviewed legality of surveillance: decision comes amid wiretap debate
Kyiv • UNN
The FBI has eliminated the unit that monitored compliance with surveillance rules amid debate in Congress over warrantless wiretapping law. The decision was supported by FBI Director Kash Patel.
The closure of the unit that monitored compliance with surveillance rules in the United States is clearly part of a larger reorganization.
UNN reports with reference to The New York Times.
Details
Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, supported the decision to close the internal oversight office, which was created in 2020 to identify and reduce the risk of abuse in the area of national security surveillance, officials familiar with the matter say, Times writes.
The liquidation of the unit, the Internal Audit Office, is taking place against the backdrop of debates in Congress on whether to reauthorize the high-profile law on wiretapping without warrants, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).
The relevant law was the focus of the office, but almost collapsed in 2024. But eventually, legislators extended its validity until April 2026. But against the background of the closure of monitoring compliance with the rules of surveillance, skeptics of the program should have new arguments: It is logical that in connection with the new changes, Congress should somehow limit the effect of the law. If the defense mechanisms have been discarded, then we are even talking about the need to terminate its effect.
Circumstances of the closure of the internal oversight office
The FBI did not comment on the situation, NYT writes. But, according to people familiar with the situation, this closure was part of a larger reorganization.
Currently, the functions of the office, along with the Office of Integrity and Compliance, which helps ensure that employees comply with laws, rules and policies in general, have been transferred to the inspection department.
Cindy Hall, who, prior to the reorganization, identified a group of people to expand the work of the audit office, suddenly left the post of head of the internal audit department.
She was forced to leave
It remains unclear to what extent the inspection department continues day-to-day operations: training agents how to properly search for information about Americans in a repository of messages seized without a warrant; or how to audit past requests, as well as regular FISA warrant applications, to verify compliance with procedures.
The liquidation of the office inside the FBI is impressive, sums up the New York Times.
Reference
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was passed in 1978, requiring the FBI to obtain warrants from a special court when wiretapping phone calls on American soil to investigate people believed to be spies or foreign terrorists.
In 2008, Congress added an exception, Section 702. It allows the government to collect, without individual court orders and from such American companies as Google and AT&T, messages from foreigners abroad.
Addition
The FBI's use of information under Section 702 has attracted increasing scrutiny. Audits have shown that analysts and agents consistently violated restrictions on when they could search the repository of information for information about Americans.
These two problems came together at the political level. In 2020, William P. Barr, the Attorney General, and Christopher Ray, the Director of the FBI, created the Internal Audit Office to try to improve FBI compliance, stressing that this is a top priority. A separate unit was created, headed by senior bureau officials.
Interestingly, the office's audit helped shed light on further problems. For example:
FBI officials improperly searched for information about members of Congress, participants in Black Lives Matter protests, and Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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