Illinois lawmaker Darin LaHood had some choice things to say about the FBI at an oversight hearing. He slammed the bureau over abuse of their authority under the controversial Section 702 spy toolkit. He knows firsthand exactly what shady and illegal things they have been up to. Christopher Wray was on the stand but LaHood did all the talking.
FBI made him a target
Illinois Republican Darin LaHood was obviously angry with the FBI on Thursday, March 9. At a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee discussing national security threats, he classified the Federal Bureau of Instigation as a one. He would know because “he had been wrongly targeted in sensitive data searches that authorities later determined should not have happened.”
The bureau thinks they can get their beloved Section 702 extended again without any changes. That’s not going to happen. The question is whether anything will be left behind after it’s been gutted to renew.
This wasn’t one of those oversight watchdog hearings which are all the rage now that Republicans have control of the House. This was an annual event and generally a snooze fest for reporters. Not this time.
GOP Rep. Darin LaHood says he thinks FBI unlawfully monitored him | Just The News https://t.co/uT2QRHCC3X
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) March 9, 2023
LaHood came out blasting the FBI as soon as the topic of “the soon-to-expire portion of surveillance law known as Section 702” was tabled. Part of it “operates as a massive database for agents and intelligence analysts to search.” That’s the part which was used against the lawmaker.
It seems that a lot of folks think the bureau has issues and he’s one of them. “Unfortunately I believe that the FBI does have a significant trust issue with the members of Congress.”
He wasn’t real happy with what he read in “a recently declassified government report, which found misuses of the Section 702 authority.” He was in it. All the way at the bottom, in fine print, as a “footnote.”
Developing: Congressman Darin LaHood says his name was wrongly searched by FBIhttps://t.co/kp5ttQ6jcG W/ @DevlinBarrett
— Shane Harris (@shaneharris) March 9, 2023
A footnote in the report
LaHood payed careful attention to the report as he read it. He was especially interested in a footnote at the end. One which “describes an incident” in which an intelligence analyst repeatedly searched 702 data “using only the name of a U.S. congressman.”
He has real good reason to believe that it was him the FBI was after. He wasn’t happy to read the part which “noted that a Justice Department review of that incident” found those queries “to be wholly inappropriate, noncompliant, and a violation, because they were overly broad.”
LaHood also “had reviewed a classified summary of the incident.” It’s that more detailed version of the story which has him convinced that he was the one targeted illegally. “It is my opinion that the member of Congress who was wrongly queried multiple times solely by his name was in fact me.”
The FBI’s inappropriate querying of a duly elected Member of Congress is an egregious violation that not only degrades trust in FISA and the Intelligence Community but is a threat to the foundational values of our democracy. pic.twitter.com/qvyDH6Ezkw
— Darin LaHood (@RepLaHood) March 9, 2023
Since it’s been hauled out into the open he wants to use it as a learning experience. While “careless abuse of this critical tool” by the bureau is “unfortunate,” he notes, “ironically, I think it gives me a good opportunity and a unique perspective about what’s wrong with the FBI.”
He was particularly concerned about the incident because “the queries retrieved information that was ‘unminimized,’ meaning it was not subjected to procedures to shield the person’s identity.” Merrick Garland actually agreed with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that when the FBI did their super Google Search on LaHood, they broke the law. Christopher Wray didn’t deny that LaHood was the one named in the footnote.
He also admitted there were others. He claims the problem has been fixed but what really happened is the administration changed and they don’t have as many Trump supporters to target. Wray ducked the issue, claiming that queries of the Section 702 database “dropped by 93 percent last year.“
