'I'm not a fan of FISA': Donald Trump bashes controversial 'spy tool' ... trends now
Former President Donald Trump said on Friday he is 'not a fan' of the controversial spy tool that was reauthorized in the House that morning.
'I'm not a big fan of FISA. But I told everybody I said do what you want. They put a lot of checks and balances on and I guess it's down to two years now so that it would come due in the early part of my administration.'
'I know [FISA] probably better than anybody,' Trump claimed. 'You know they spied on my campaign. You do know that right? And they did lots of other bad things.'
Trump had deflated chances of FISA's passing a head of a failed rule vote to advance it earlier this week with a post on Truth Social. But Johnson made an agreement with Trump and his allies to renew it only for two years instead of five, so they could hash out more reforms under a potential Trump administration.
The final vote was 273 to 147.
'KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!! DJT,' Trump wrote on Truth Social ahead of a failed rule vote to reauthorize Section 702 of FISA on Wednesday.
Donald Trump said he 'stands' with Mike Johnson and he's done a 'very good job' as the pair appeared at a joint news conference amid threats of another motion to oust the speaker
Another part of the law that is not up for reauthorization - Title 1 - was used to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 when he was suspected of communications with the Russians. Trump reauthorized FISA in 2018.
Trump's comments at the Friday news conference were a more passive opposition.
Section 702 specifically allows the U.S. government to surveil foreign nationals with suspected terror ties who are not on U.S. soil, even if the party on the other side of such communications is a U.S. national in America.
A hotly contested amendment from Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., to require a warrant before picking up conversations of those on U.S. soil who communicate with suspected terrorists failed on a rare tie vote, 212-212.
Speaker Mike Johnson cast the final vote that tanked the amendment - a move that is sure to rankle hardliners.
'Being the vote that took down the warrant amendment certainly brought other members over to my side,' said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Johnson, who she has filed a motion to oust from the speakership.
'This is a sad day for America. The Speaker doesn’t always vote in the House, but he was the tie breaker today. He voted against warrants,' Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote on X.
An amendment from Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, that would require the FBI to provide quarterly reports about how many Americans had been queried under 702 passed and was added to the bill.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Chip Roy are introducing the new bill in Congress, the SAVE Act
The national security surveillance bill includes new guardrails aimed at oversight and transparency, after a report found that intelligence agents had improperly queried Americans 278,000 times under the law.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a May 2023 report that details how the FBI improperly used Section 702 to 'query' - or search - names of individuals who were suspected of being on the Capitol grounds during the January 6, 2021 riot, Black Lives Matters protestors, victims of crime and their families and donors to one congressional campaign.
FISA is set to expire on April 19, after which 'America will go blind,' Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner warned reporters.
Ahead of the vote, Turner noted that FISA could have been used to spy on Al-Qaeda ahead of the 9/11 attack.
'The 9/11 perpetrators were in the United States and they were communicating with Al-Qaeda,' he said on the House floor.
'At that time, we made a grave mistake and that we were not spying on al Qaeda and we didn't see who they were communicating with United in the United States. we changed that and we began to spine al Qaeda and we got to see the
