Award-winning news and culture, features breaking news, in-depth reporting and criticism on politics, business, entertainment and technology.
President Donald Trump undermined the White House’s position on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — known as FISA — on Thursday morning, but flip-flopped on the position just hours later.
“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
With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11,2018
As Matthew Gertz of Media Matters pointed out, Trump’s decision to denounce FISA was tweeted at the same time that « Fox & Friends » was connecting the act to Trump’s ongoing woes over accusations that his presidential campaign colluded with Russian government officials.
Left, Fox & Friends, 6:46 am Right, Trump,7:33 am pic.twitter.com/hvxAc93EyK
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 11,2018
On Wednesday, the White House released a statement on supporting FISA.
The chief controversy surrounding FISA — outside of Trump’s complaints — comes from some Republicans upset about Section 702, which allows the government to collect electronic information from foreign intelligence agencies and from foreigners outside the United States, according to CBS News. Those communications could sometimes include American communications.
Republicans upset with Section 702 had been pushing for what they were calling a « USA Rights » amendment, which curtail the ability of intelligence agencies in collecting information. That amendment, seemingly championed by Trump, was rejected by the White House, which said in a press release that it 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. »
Although FISA’s authorization technically expired at the end of 2017, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence determined that Section 702 expires on April 26,2018 because it had been recertified for one year on April 26,2017.
