Between 2020 and early 2022, FBI personnel conducted more than 278,000 searches of communications incidentally collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that the Justice Department determined failed to meet the agency’s legal standard. Section 702 permits warrantless collection aimed at foreign targets overseas, but FBI personnel can query that data using U.S. person identifiers. Declassified Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions released in May and July 2023 described the violations as “persistent and widespread.” Searches included 133 people arrested during protests after George Floyd’s killing, more than 20,000 people associated with the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, more than 19,000 congressional campaign donors, journalists, crime victims, and elected officials. In one case, only eight donors in a 19,000-person batch were found to have sufficient foreign-influence ties.
The court also disclosed 2022 searches using the surnames of a sitting U.S. senator and a state senator, plus an unjustified Social Security number query involving a state judge who had complained to the FBI about alleged civil-rights violations. Representative Darin LaHood said he believed he was the unnamed member of Congress queried improperly. FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged on December 5, 2023, that the violations “never should have happened.” After reforms requiring opt-in searches, written justifications, training, and escalating approval for sensitive queries, logged FBI queries fell from approximately 3.4 million in the year ending November 2021 to about 5,500 in 2024. Congress reauthorized Section 702 in April 2024 without a warrant requirement after a proposed amendment failed by one House vote, leaving the core surveillance authority—and continuing civil-liberties debate—intact.
