
Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists - dbcooper
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31/secret-rules-make-it-pretty-easy-for-the-fbi-to-spy-on-journalists-2/
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dbcooper
>SECRET FBI RULES allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with
approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under normal
judicial procedures.

The classified rules, obtained by The Intercept and dating from 2013, govern
the FBI’s use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain
information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the
news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in
heavily redacted form.

Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints
on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas
or search warrants before accessing journalists’ information.

The rules stipulate that obtaining a journalist’s records with a national
security letter requires the signoff of the FBI’s general counsel and the
executive assistant director of the bureau’s National Security Branch, in
addition to the regular chain of approval. Generally speaking, there are a
variety of FBI officials, including the agents in charge of field offices, who
can sign off that an NSL is “relevant” to a national security investigation.

