Reps. Turner, Jordan seek clarity regarding FBI Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorities

U.S. Reps. Mike Turner (R-OH) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) forwarded correspondence Tuesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, seeking clarity regarding the agency’s use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities.

The legislators focused on the 3.3 million person queries in 2021 – double the amount conducted in 2020 – against its Section 702 holdings.

“In November 2020, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) issued an order expanding the FBI’s FISA reporting requirements to include the number of U.S. person queries run by the FBI against Section 702-acquired information,” the legislators wrote.

Turner, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Jordan, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, cited an Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Annual Statistical Transparency Report detailing from December 2020 through November 2021, the FBI conducted over 3.3 million U.S. person queries against its Section 702 holdings.

“This dramatic increase raises significant questions,” the legislators wrote. “We, therefore, write to request your full and prompt cooperation with our oversight efforts as we seek to understand why the number of U.S. person queries more than doubled from the prior year.”

Turner and Jordan have requested from the FBI a full accounting of the approximately 3,394,053 U.S. person queries conducted by the FBI in calendar year (CY) 2021; an explanation of facts and circumstances regarding the roughly 1.9 million U.S person queries being the result of an FBI investigation into alleged Russian hackers who sought to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure; and the total number of FBI U.S. person queries of Section 702-derived information, by year, for CY 2015 through CY 2019.