Peoria Standard

Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) said in a recent House Intelligence Committee hearing that his name was wrongfully searched in the FBI’s massive 702 database which includes details on Americans scooped up through spying.

The FBI is seeking to extend the 702 program, which was the reason for the hearing.  LaHood said an FBI analyst ran several queries on his name in the database.

“It is my opinion that the member of Congress that was wrongfully queried multiple times solely by his name was in fact me,” LaHood said, New York Post reported. “Now, this careless abuse of this critical tool by the FBI is unfortunate. Ironically, I think it gives me a good opportunity and a unique perspective on what's wrong with the FBI and the problems that the FBI has to highlight that I would like to submit for the record. 

LaHood noted that on Feb. 28, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Attorney General Merrick Brian Garland asked for reauthorization from Congress. However, he said, "they go in to add that there needs to be rigorous and ongoing oversight of the FBI 702 Querying specifically their collection decisions on U.S. person inquiries, and they will be evaluating and taking remedial action to address identified incidents of noncompliance by the FBI." 

“Secondly, a letter was sent to you on February 15th, Director Wray, 2023, from Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona, and he talks about the declassified 2021 report detailing these continued abuses of 702. In there, he mentions that ‘these instances should frighten every American, and Congress deserves an explanation for them.’” 

Such abuses of the program were also used in the discredited Christopher Steele dossier on former president Donald Trump. LaHood is leading the working group in the House considering whether to reauthorize the program. 

“Unfortunately, there are far too many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that question whether the executive branch can be trusted with this powerful tool,” LaHood said, according to the Washington Examiner. “And that’s because in the past and currently there have been abuses and misuses of 702 by the FBI. I believe that a clean legislative reauthorization of 702 is a non-starter. … You must first acknowledge that a problem exists before we can formulate meaningful reforms to build back trust and confidence in the FISA process.”

In 2021 the FBI conducted 3.4 million 702 searches. The FBI’s 702 program is blatantly unconstitutional according to several civil rights groups. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has advocated banning the spy program due to it being a “rich source of warrantless government access to Americans’ phone calls, texts, and emails.” EFF further noted that “Section 702 has become something Congress never intended: a domestic spying tool. Congress should consider ending the program entirely, but certainly not reauthorize Section 702 without critical reforms, including true accountability and oversight.” 

The House Judiciary subcommittee on the “weaponization” of the federal government is being led by U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) who has been highly critical of what has been dubbed the “censorship industrial complex” by journalist Matt Taibbi. The increasing scrutiny of intelligence agencies began with the Twitter Files exposing the role of intelligence agencies in successfully burying the New York Post’s bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. That reporting revealed a string of emails revealing questionable relationships including tens of millions of dollars provided to the president’s ne’er-do-well son along with photos of him in sexual situations with prostitutes and smoking what appears to be a crack pipe. The story was censored from social media and the New York Post’s Twitter account was taken down altogether limiting its traction before the 2020 presidential election. More recently the Twitter Files have exposed the Biden administration’s zeal for authoritarianism spirit in censoring truthful information.

The Biden Administration has gone to great lengths to censor those who’ve discussed the so-called “lab leak theory.” David Zweig, a journalist involved in the release of the Twitter files said the Biden administration got social media companies to censor information about Covid, such as the lab leak theory. “HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE “– By censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy – By discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed – By suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s ‘own data’,” Zweig said in a tweet.