U.S. President Donald Trump said he will veto the bill to extend three different surveillance programs under the Freedom Act and make a number of changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) if the initiative is approved by the House of Representatives.

“Our country has just experienced the greatest political crime in its history. And the large-scale abuse of FISA played a big role in this, ”Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the surveillance of members of his campaign headquarters in 2016 who were suspected of“ ties ”with Moscow.

In mid-May, the Republican-controlled Senate encouraged the extension of surveillance programs under the Freedom Act and the FISA, but introduced a number of changes to the bill. The document was supported by 80 out of 100 congressmen. Voting on this issue in the House of Representatives, where the majority are Democrats, was supposed to take place on the evening of May 27. However, the leadership of the Democratic Party decided to postpone the meeting indefinitely. 

According to Politico, senior Democrats fear that because of the resistance of Trump and the US Department of Justice, the House of Representatives will not get enough votes.

Total tracking

Recall, the Freedom Act was adopted in 2015, replacing the USA Patriot Act, which allowed US intelligence agencies to conduct total surveillance of citizens bypassing traditional democratic mechanisms. In particular, U.S. intelligence could, without court authorization, listen in on telephone conversations, read e-mail correspondence, monitor online purchases, and secretly issue search warrants.

Commenting on the approval of the Freedom Act, the Russian Foreign Ministry then stated that this document only “cosmetically corrects” the National Security Agency (NSA) campaign for electronic surveillance of citizens.

The Freedom Act curtailed some of the competencies of the United States intelligence agencies. For example, he restricted electronic surveillance by the NSA. At the same time, the U.S. intelligence community retained broad powers to collect a variety of personal information.

Another controversial regulatory act - FISA, which Trump has now spoken about - has been in force since 1978 and regulates operational activities in relation to alleged agents of foreign special services and citizens of other countries in the United States. According to experts, FISA has been repeatedly used to monitor individuals and as an instrument of internal political struggle.

  • White House Building
  • Reuters
  • © Al Drago

Thus, the publication of The New York Times, in which the administration of the 43rd President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, was caught in total surveillance of Americans and foreigners residing in the United States, caused a huge resonance in the mid-2000s. The wiretap was conducted by the National Security Agency.

In 2016, the FBI used FISA provisions to initiate an investigation called Crossfire Hurricane (Crossfire Hurricane) against Trump headquarters staff regarding their “ties” with Russia. Four people close to the current president of the United States fell under suspicion. We are talking about Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos. However, the investigators did not find evidence of any "collusion" with Moscow.

Trump has repeatedly condemned such actions by US intelligence agencies. So, last year, he called surveillance of his campaign headquarters “an attempt to overthrow” the presidency. According to the head of the White House, "the highest officials of the FBI turned out to be unscrupulous servants of the law and deceived the court for foreign intelligence."

In December last year, the US Department of Justice published a report on the investigation of Crossfire Hurricane. It states that this case was not dictated by “political bias or inappropriate motives”. At the same time, the document spoke of "elementary and fundamental errors" that the FBI leadership made.

"Configured in battle"

According to experts, in the US political circles there is an ambiguous situation regarding laws that regulate surveillance of citizens bypassing generally accepted democratic procedures. 

Congressmen generally support maintaining large-scale control over individuals, but to date, Democrats and Republicans disloyal to Trump do not want to seriously aggravate relations with the president.

“In Congress, they fear that Trump, in order to increase his rating before the election, might shake up the entire intelligence community, with which he had scores due to an investigation of“ ties ”with Russia and the impeachment procedure, which was triggered by a statement by an anonymous informant,” said In an interview with RT, Vladimir Vasiliev, the chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to the analyst, the American establishment fears that the restructuring of national security agencies may result in the fragmentation of individual departments (in particular, the FBI), the dismissal of the current leadership and the washing out of professional personnel, a deficit of which has been observed in recent years.

  • NSA Headquarters in Maryland
  • © nsa.gov

“With respect to the intelligence community, Trump is in a militant manner, demonstrating a willingness to take aggressive steps. Ideally, he would like to replace all the heads of special services with people loyal to him and shake up the entire national security system, which really needs to be modernized. However, Democrats and Republicans believe that such a policy will harm the country's intelligence capabilities, ”says Vasiliev.

According to him, most congressmen oppose a fundamental reform of the US intelligence community, fearing its weakening amid growing disagreements with Russia and China. As a result, US intelligence agencies will not be able to work effectively either domestically or abroad, Vasiliev said.

A somewhat different point of view is shared by an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies Vladimir Bruter. In an interview with RT, the analyst suggested that Trump is unlikely to engage in a large-scale conflict with the intelligence community.

“The president does not seek to protect citizens. Attacks against the special services are rather an act of personal resentment. He understands that FISA can be applied against him personally. At the same time, the congressional ranks are dominated by the belief that a system of large-scale control over citizens must be maintained, some legislators even believe that the powers of special services need to be expanded, ”said Bruter.

As the analyst predicts, the leadership of the US intelligence community will lobby for regulations to expand the scope for surveillance. According to Vladimir Bruter, the current geopolitical situation, the “aggressive” policies of China and other countries, and calls to increase the country's biological security against the backdrop of the coronavirus threat may serve as a reason for changing the law.

“It is unlikely that the FISA and the Freedom Act will not be prolonged. But even if this happens, the situation for US intelligence will not change dramatically. No revelations and scandals have diminished the desire of American intelligence agencies to monitor citizens. They continue to work actively and unhindered both within the United States and in Europe, ”concluded Bruter.