National Security Surveillance Plummeted Amid Pandemic and Russia Inquiry Fallout
But the F.B.I. is still using residual authority to obtain business records under a partly expired Patriot Act provision, a new report showed.
The F.B.I.’s headquarters in Washington. The number of people that the bureau targeted for surveillance in national security investigations dropped sharply last year.Credit.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
April 30, 2021
WASHINGTON The number of people targeted by the F.B.I. for court-approved searches and surveillance in terrorism and espionage investigations dropped sharply in 2020, a report released Friday said, amid the pandemic and the continuing political and legal fallout from the F.B.I.’s botched use of its eavesdropping power in the Trump-Russia investigation.