Demand Progress

WASHINGTON, DC -- The FBI just released two documents regarding queries of information collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): the “FBI FISA Query Guidance,” and the “FBI FISA Query Guidance Nutshell.”

In response to this news, Demand Progress Senior Policy Counsel Sean Vitka issued the following statement:

"These two documents do nothing to prove that the FBI has fixed its fundamental and well-demonstrated inability to comply with its own internal rules, the orders of the FISA Court, or even with the law itself. In fact, it clearly demonstrates that the FBI and its defenders are making demonstrably inaccurate statements to the press and public. For instance, an unnamed senior FBI official told The Washington Post last month that the new procedures 'generally' mean 'that there must be some nexus to a foreign power' for the FBI to lawfully search through communications acquired under Section 702 and FISA more generally in pursuit of criminal information about Americans. The documents released yesterday show that simply isn't true."

For documentation of the FBI and NSA's "widespread violations" and "institutional lack of candor":

Selected Section 702 Violations on the Record

Timeline of Selected Legal and Constitutional Violations inPrograms Operated under Section 702