Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
258 Articles
With Remote Hacking, the Government’s Particularity Problem Isn’t Going Away
Electronic surveillance succeeds because it is secret. When the government seeks to record “what is whispered in the closet,” in the words of Justice Brandeis, it must use…
Congress’s Embarrassingly Empty (National Security) Record
This week, we learned the United States will send 250 special operations troops to the war in Syria, bringing the publicly known total number of American troops operating in the…
Revelations From the Newly Declassified FISC Opinion on Section 702
Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declassified several Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinions from 2015. One opinion from November…
ODNI Response on Increased Intelligence Sharing Still Leaves Questions and Concerns
In late February, The New York Times reported that the administration was preparing to expand sharing of the mass signals intelligence collected by NSA pursuant to Executive Order…
The New Intelligence Sharing Procedures Are Not About Law Enforcement
[Editor’s Note: The author composed this analytic essay while serving as General Counsel for the Director of National Intelligence.] There has been a lot of speculation about…
We Need to Know More About When the FBI Can Access One of the NSA’s Biggest Databases
Americans have learned quite a bit about electronic surveillance since Edward Snowden leaked a massive trove of classified documents almost three years ago. And while we still…
FBI Discovers It Can Access That iPhone After All
Update: The FBI is now explicitly denying that the method described in this post is the one they’re planning to employ — so apparently my suspicion was mistaken and they…
A friendly critique of the proposed Chesney/Vladeck “middle ground” in the Apple/FBI disputes
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck have published an excellent and provocative post today concerning the recent All Writs Act disputes between the government and Apple. I agree with…
Strong Intelligence Oversight Can Happen Within the Executive Branch
That the American public is divided on the current showdown between Silicon Valley and the national security state is to be expected. What is more striking, at least at first blush,…
The FBI Wants Schools to Spy on Their Students’ Thoughts
Imagine you’re a high school principal. An FBI document lands on your desk. It’s called “Preventing Violent Extremism in Schools,” and it’s alarming. According to the…
DOJ’s appeal to district court judge from Magistrate Orenstein’s rejection of Apple All Writs Act order
is here; I have not yet read it. It will be considered by Judge Margo Brodie.
A Readers’ Guide to the Apple All Writs Act Cases
The last few weeks and months have been awash in media coverage of two cases before magistrate judges involving the federal government seeking to use the All Writs Act to compel…