On Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray pleaded for the renewal of the key surveillance law known as FISA that is set to expire on Dec. 31.
Section 702 allows the government to conduct surveillance operations on individuals outside of the U.S. to obtain information to detect terrorist attacks and potential threats from foreign adversaries. It is also an essential tool of what polls show most Americans consider a major problem: The "weaponized" U.S. Department of Justice.
Independent journalist Julie Kelly noted that Wray has not once used FISA 702 authority to arrest anti-Israel activists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 18 despite the activists being directly tied to the Hamas terror organization and a group called "Global Intifada."
"Watching Wray pretend the FBI is using its surveillance powers to track 'foreign adversaries" instead of U.S. political dissidents is pretty amusing," Kelly wrote in a Telegram post. "
While the anti-Israel activists get a pass for storming the U.S. Capitol, the FBI continues to carry out the Biden Department of Justice's all-out nationwide dragnet for those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 protest.
"They’re arresting J6’ers by almost 1 new arrest per day — nearly 4 years after it happened," Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a social media post. "How many Oct 18th Pro-Hamas’ers are they hunting down that broke the exact same laws that J6’ers did?"
(The DOJ's database of J6 defendants can be seen here.)
Wray focused on the importance of FISA for defending U.S. national security.
“When it comes to foreign adversaries like Iran, whose actions across a whole host of threats have grown more brazen — seeking to assassinate high-level officials, kidnap dissidents, and conduct cyber attacks here in the United States — or the People’s Republic of China, which poses a generational threat to our economic and national security, stripping the FBI of its 702 authorities would be a form of unilateral disarmament,” Wray said during opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz noted: "Section 702 of FISA allows surveillance of non-U.S. citizens overseas, and when U.S. citizens are flagged in these investigations, the FBI takes over and can run a query on them for possible security issues."
Earlier this year, Gaetz introduced a resolution not to renew the FISA act which was used by Obama holdovers in the Department of Justice to investigate the unexpected election of Donald J. Trump in 2016. Subsequently, the Biden team's weaponization of federal law enforcement against its political opponents is on full display on several fronts, critics charge.
Among the DOJ's most recent J6 convictions is that of two-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Klete Keller who entered the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 protest. Keller was sentenced on Friday to six months of home confinement.
Keller was arrested in January 2021 and pleaded guilty in September 2021 to a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding. His sentencing was deferred because of his cooperation, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon sentenced Keller to 36 months probation, the first six of which will be on home confinement.
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 10 months in federal prison, saying that while Keller’s actions were “unconscionable,” he provided extensive cooperation with the government and deserves a sentence below the guideline range.
“Klete Derik Keller once wore the American flag as an Olympian,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. “On January 6, 2021, he threw that flag in a trash can.”
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