Arizona congressman pushing for release of surveillance memo
Jan 19, 2018, 9:20 AM | Updated: 11:41 am
PHOENIX — Republican lawmakers, including U.S. Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona, were pushing for the release of a memo they said showed abuse of power by the FBI and Justice Department.
“It needs to be public. I think Americans will be outraged when they read what I read,” Biggs said Friday on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.
“We just have to get it on the [Senate] floor and vote to reveal it.”
Republicans have said the four-page memo revealed government agencies used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to obtain a dossier on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his possible ties to Russia.
That constituted an overreach of grand proportions, conservatives said.
An intelligence committee panel voted Thursday night to allowed House members access to the FISA document, specifics of which cannot be disclosed yet.
“I’ve never seen a nondisclosure document like I signed [Thursday] … we were in a soundproof room,” Biggs said.
The Senate voted to renew FISA and sent the bill to the president.
Biggs has been vocal in his opposition to the bill. A particular part — Section 702 — has been the sticking point with the Mesa politician.
Section 702 gives intelligence groups the OK to run warrantless surveillance on communications of non-natives outside the U.S. It is not to be used on Americans.
But, opponents have argued, Americans could be a swept into the database by accident.
In a statement earlier this month when the House voted to reauthorize, he said, “I voted against the underlying bill because it does not sufficiently protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment Rights.”
