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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / If There’s One Thing Attorney General Barr Knows Its Legally Questionable Surveillance Programs

If There’s One Thing Attorney General Barr Knows Its Legally Questionable Surveillance Programs

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Well this is awkward…

From USA Today (emphasis mine):

Justice under AG Barr began vast surveillance program without legal review – in 1992, inspector general finds

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr launched a vast surveillance program that gathered records of innocent Americans’ international phone calls without first conducting a review of whether it was legal, the department’s inspector general concluded Thursday.

It happened in 1992, the last time Barr served as attorney general.

The secret program, run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, ultimately gathered billions of records of nearly all phone calls from the United States to 116 countries, with little oversight from Congress or the courts, a USA TODAY investigation found. It provided a blueprint for far broader phone-data surveillance the government launched after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Justice Department’s inspector general said both the DEA and the Justice Department “failed to conduct a comprehensive legal analysis” of its authority to gather those records.

The Inspector General’s report identified areas in which the program would be vulnerable to legal challenges, but did not reach a conclusion about whether it was lawful.

Attorney General Barr is going to be very, very sorry that he came out of retirement. The news media is going to go through his dirty laundry and the Intelligence Community is going to leak. The question is whether he’ll be smart enough to recognize the warning shots or whether he’ll just keeping doing what he was appointed to do: protect the President, not be the Attorney General of the United States.Attorney General Sessions was, amazingly enough, smart enough to get the hint. Is William Barr as smart as Jeff Sessions? Only time will tell.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  3. 3.

    Keith P.

    I really hope you’re right because I have been getting my hopes up way too much lately.-

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    This is one dumb member of Congress. Like making Louie Gohmert look smart dumb!

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    It’s never too early to think about Halloween.

    The UK and the EU have agreed a “flexible extension” of Brexit until 31 October, European Council president Donald Tusk has said.

    Speaking after five hours of talks at an EU summit in Brussels, Mr Tusk said his “message to British friends” was “please do not waste this time”.

    Theresa May said the UK would still aim to leave the EU as soon as possible. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the UK must now hold European elections in May, or leave on 1 June without a deal.

  6. 6.

    Raoul

    I only caught a snippet on the radio this afternoon, but heard that Chuck Schumer is asking Barr to retract something from today’s testimony. Anyone know which of the AGs various absurdities the minority leader was concerned about?
    Thanks.

  7. 7.

    Dave

    @TaMara (HFG): He’s doesn’t realize it’s not the 80’s and 90’s. That you need a marginally competent party and President to fix for. And a large percentage of people that aren’t completely fed up with your bullshit. About the only thing he has going for him is a media that is actually worse or at least not any better than when he last played the game. And that he’s extremely unlikely to face any real consequences other than loss of reputation.

  8. 8.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Adam L Silverman: “And isn’t it true the planet was much hotter back 200 million years ago?” I’m betting he’s a secret flat-earther.

  9. 9.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is one dumb member of Congress. Like making Louie Gohmert look smart dumb!

    I had hear about this, but the fullness of Massie’s moronitude was not clear.

    Until now.

    I guess that only thing left for him to say was “Game, set, and touchdown, libtard! Pwned!!!”

  11. 11.

    Raoul

    @Adam L Silverman: How did Rep. Massie pass a drivers license test? I mean, the level of stupidity, one wonders if he has to have a minder who presses elevator buttons for him … such technology is confusing!!

  13. 13.

    Keith P.

    If There’s One Thing Attorney General Barr Knows Its Legally Questionable Surveillance Programs

    Well, that and where Sally Jesse Raphael buys her glasses.

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Raoul: It’s the spying bit referred to in this post. Especially because Barr claimed that the FBI never notified the Trump campaign that the Russian’s were trying to infiltrate the campaign, which is not true. The FBI did brief them in early summer 2016. The President, his campaign officials including members of the House and Senate like Jeff Sessions, Devin Nunes, Richard Burr, Lee Zeldin, former NJ Governor Chris Christie, LTG (ret) Flynn, and other others, his sons and daughter, they all blew the FBI off and when they were actually contacted by Russians they never notified the FBI.

  15. 15.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Adam,

    How is the IC going to react to these JoeMcCarthy/RoyCohn type smears?

  17. 17.

    chopper

    this makes me think he’s gonna push the report off further.

    the first third or so of the mueller report just lays out all the shit russia and russian intelligence did to try to infiltrate the trump campaign to try to win the election for the guy (even if trump was innocent, it’s a big reason why trump doesn’t want the report public, cause it makes him look illegitimate). assuming that the FBI got a whiff of this back in ’16, it would have been a no brainer to open an investigation into it.

    why would barr claim to investigate this unless he was going to work as hard as he could to make sure the report never saw the light of day? if the report came out everyone would be be all ‘oh yeah, the FBI should have been on that shit!’

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Raoul: He passed more than that. He has a Bachelors and a Masters in engineering from MIT

    The PHANTOM—Massie’s most notable invention—is a haptic computer interface that enables users to “feel” physical objects in cyberspace. By inserting their fingers into swiveling thimbles that connect to mechanical arms, users are able to sense the shape, size and consistency of objects on a computer screen. The PHANTOM allows designers and engineers to create and interact with objects in 3-D without actually building them. It can even train doctors to perform surgery on “virtual patients.” Massie collaborated with MIT Professor Kenneth Salisbury at the Artificial Intelligence Lab to develop and build the prototype.

    He’s a “libertarian”, which I always assume means at least halfway to crazy, the kind of crazy that eats your brain
    ETA: I got that from the Hayes show

  26. 26.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The President, his campaign officials including members of the House and Senate like Jeff Sessions, Devin Nunes, Richard Burr, Lee Zeldin, former NJ Governor Chris Christie, LTG (ret) Flynn, and other others, his sons and daughter, they all blew the FBI off and when they were actually contacted by Russians

    I’m curious how much blowing off the FBI by GOP functionaries like Christie, Sessions, Burr, etc, had to do with willingness to conspire with a hostile foreign power like Russia to win an election or simply because it was Obama’s FBI and therefore not to be trusted; IOW petty partisanship and racism blinded them. Or perhaps both?

  28. 28.

    Waldo

    The only way the Barr surveillance story could get better is if Trump was one of the people he spied on.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I don’t know. I don’t think that Sessions or Zeldin are very smart. Burr is sort of meh. I think Christie is just so enamored with himself that he blew it off. As for Flynn, I have a different theory on Flynn that I’m not sharing publicly.

  30. 30.

    hells littlest angel

    Is William Barr as smart as Jeff Sessions? Only time will tell.

    But the question will still remain: Is he smarter than a fourth grader?

  31. 31.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @chopper:

    The real question that should be asked of Barr is this, over and over again:

    If you have nothing to hide, than release the report.

    The same can be said for Trump’s tax returns, which the IRS commissioner is required by law to turn over to Congress upon request.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Waldo: They did. From the article:

    At its peak, the program harvested records of nearly all calls from the United States to Mexico, Canada, nearly all of Central and South America and much of the rest of the world.

  35. 35.

    trnc

    A recent IG investigation found DOJ under Barr secretly launched a vast and legally questionable phone-data surveillance program in 1992

    As they display daily, every accusation is a confession.

  36. 36.

    Patricia Kayden

    I hope Barr is going to be very sorry for coming out of retirement but it doesn’t appear that the Senate is going to lift a finger against anyone in this regime. McConnell is fine with the corruption as long as rightwing extremist judges continue to be confirmed.

  37. 37.

    piratedan

    are the Dems going to have to get the Capitol Police to arrest one of these lying fucks to put a stop to this endless fucking kabuki of the GOP?

  39. 39.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It’s so mean to tease us with the knowledge that you have a sekret theory you can’t share!

    But that’s OK too. All will come out. I just hope I live long enough to see it unfold. I’m healthy, so I’m also optimistic I’ll get to watch it unfold eventually.

    These guys are so, so stupid and evil~!!~

  40. 40.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Patricia Kayden: McConnell is fine with the corruption as long as rightwing extremist judges continue to be confirmed.

    as are Susan Collins, Willard “Mitt” Romney, Marco Rubio, Cory Gardner…

  41. 41.

    jl

    @trollhattan: UK is doing a great job of dissuading other countries from trying to leave the EU, all by itself, without even leaving. And in a fumbling understated panicky chaotic, but stately and processional, way that seems very English somehow.

    Bravo. Well done. Carry on.

    I say English, not British, since not sure that is relevant in this context. The English part of the Union seems to want shit up their bed without regard to anyone else.

  42. 42.

    Bill Arnold

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As for Flynn, I have a different theory on Flynn that I’m not sharing publicly.

    We need a not-Adam nym attached to an anonymous email address. (I presume that’s a serious no-no in your world, sigh. But I’ll keep an eye out for such theories. :-)

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @J R in WV: @Bill Arnold: I’m not sharing it because I can’t prove it. It is logically and internally coherent in regard to what is known about Flynn based on open sources. I’ve sent it to several people, including one or two front pagers, in case it should turn out that I’m right. If that happens I’ll post it with a reference when I emailed it to those couple of front pagers (which was way back in 2017). There was some reporting back in November or December that, I think, verifies my theory, but it isn’t enough to go public yet.

  46. 46.

    Millard Filmore

    @trollhattan:

    The UK and the EU have agreed a “flexible extension” of Brexit until 31 October, European Council president Donald Tusk has said.

    Whew! I still have time to get some of my retirement money to a safe haven in Asia.

  48. 48.

    jl

    I thought this was an interesting article from law prof on the corrupt hack and abject Trump flunky Barr. Points up more self-contradictions in his testimony and bogus ‘summary’.

    Barr Sounds More and More Like Trump’s Roy Cohn
    The attorney general contradicts himself on Mueller and obstruction and starts talking like a true-believer on intelligence agencies ‘spying’ on the Trump campaign.
    Barbara McQuade, Daily Beast, 04.10.19
    https://www.thedailybeast.com/barr-sounds-more-and-more-like-trumps-roy-cohn

    Found via Josh Marshall twitter

  50. 50.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Barr might regret it if he gets the same treatment by protesters that Nielsen got. What we need to do is basically make his life a living hell. I’m not sure if this type of civil disobedience will be effective against Barr since they’ve had over a year or so to adjust to it. I’m also not sure if Barr would have better security arrangements given his position as AG (higher up the line of succession for president) than the Secretary of Homeland Security

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: She’s a former US Attorney. As in one of the presidentially nominated, Senate confirmed ones.

  57. 57.

    Aleta

    (Rolling St., April 10) In the case before a Nevada state judge this week, the elder Bundy, 72, had renewed his claims that the federal government does not, in fact, own the vast swaths of Nevada land it holds title to. Judge Jim Crockett was not impressed: “It is painfully obvious,” Crockett wrote, that the rancher’s claims “rest upon a fundamentally flawed notion advanced by Bundy since 1998.” The judge underscored that “three federal court decisions — Bundy I, Bundy II and Bundy Ill — have now considered and rejected Bundy’s repeated arguments.”

    Crockett concluded with gusto: “It is simply delusional to maintain that all public land within the boundaries of Nevada belongs to the State of Nevada.” Addressing another dubious Bundy claim, brought under a provision of state law that has been repudiated by Nevada, the judge wrote plainly: “The Nevada legislature lacks authority to unilaterally revoke federal ownership of public lands in Nevada.”

    Crockett concluded his eight-page ruling by tossing Bundy’s case — and ruling in favor of the Center for Biological Diversity, which had intervened in the matter. “The judge was being kind to call these claims delusional,” said the environmental group’s executive director, Kierán Suckling. “Hopefully this unequivocal ruling will encourage Bundy to finally pay his grazing fees and bring this nonsense to a close,” Suckling said, though he added: “I’m not holding my breath.”

    If only it would end here. But Koch-supported challenges (or by whomever) to fed land will continue.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: The place is being held together with bailing wire and Alain’s spit, the servers couldn’t handle the traffic.

  61. 61.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @TaMara (HFG): Yup, #ETTD is a thing, with Barr and Mnuchin being among the most recent examples.

    Thinking lots about you and Bixby and Scout and the ducks and the bobcat. Oh wait, the bobcat was at Cheryl’s… and it was the lovely critter as opposed to equipment.

  63. 63.

    Bill Arnold

    @jl:

    Barr Sounds More and More Like Trump’s Roy Cohn

    I loved that headline. Piece is good too.
    (fwiw been using the free version of https://www.hvper.com/ , a (meta)aggregator which has dailybeast links.)

  64. 64.

    The Dangerman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As for Flynn, I have a different theory on Flynn that I’m not sharing publicly.

    Flynn seems to be the key to this whole thing, whatever the fuck this thing is.

  67. 67.

    Bill Arnold

    @The Dangerman:
    Intuition keeps suggesting there is more to be revealed to be true about certain aspects of The Dossier. Flynn being involved would be … fun. Sorta.

  68. 68.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Steve in the ATL: As they are wont to be. One I’ve had a couple of dinners with still rather is, though to be fair she’s now a US District judge. Remind me some time to tell you a funny story about another federal judge here; it’s not suitable for sharing here.

  69. 69.

    Bill Arnold

    Re that USA Today piece (Brad Heath, Mar 28, 2019), the last sentence is interesting. (bold mine)

    The program, known within the drug agency as USTO (a play on call going from the United States to other countries), was carried out in part by the department’s Criminal Division, run at the time by Robert Mueller.

  72. 72.

    The Dangerman

    @Bill Arnold:

    …certain aspects of The Dossier.

    Hmmm. No, I don’t think it has anything to do with the Dossier. What spun that one judge up to ask about treason when Flynn was about to be sentenced (and why hasn’t Flynn been sentenced yet)? Has it got anything to do with why Flynn was fired by Obama?

  75. 75.

    matt

    Trump seems to have fairly uncanny intelligence-draining abilities, reflecting on his track record.

  76. 76.

    Adam L Silverman

    @The Dangerman: No, Flynn was fired for being a disaster as the DIA director, being a toxic leader, creating a toxic work environment, and refusing to do what his superiors at DOD (Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence), the Director of National Intelligence, and the President told him to do. And then angrily fighting with them about it.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rk: No. It is clear he was desperate for money and it is clear he’s an asshole. The former is a pathway for controlling him as a witting or unwitting asset. The latter is that he’s just an asshole.

  81. 81.

    Cheryl Rofer

    If I recall an email from Adam long ago, these posts aren’t part of that, but they’re interesting in the larger story of Michael Flynn.

    A Quick Post On Selling Nuclear Technology To The Saudis

    Mike Flynn’s Nuclear Adventure – The Companies

    Mike Flynn’s Nuclear Adventure – The Plan

    Michael Flynn’s Nuclear Adventure – The People

    It looks like Congress will be investigating the organization pushing nuclear sales to Saudi Arabia – IP3. I suspect that his original role, with a predecessor organization, was to get sanctions removed on Russia so that their objective of selling Russian reactors could be carried out. The objectives have changed over time, which I’ve gone into in more detail in the posts. The whole thing makes sense as a con to make these guys a bunch of money, but I’m not convinced that’s the whole story.

  83. 83.

    opiejeanne

    @Adam L Silverman: Did you see the ruling by a judge that the Federal law banning FGM is unconstitutional? That’s shocking enough, but Barr says the DOJ will not defend the statute.

    I feel really sick about this.

  86. 86.

    Tenar Arha

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I do wonder if that’s a bigger pattern than we know from the public record. It’s been a GOP failing for their last two Presidents, ignoring their Democratic predecessors’ warnings. Bush blew off the bin Laden warnings, & Trump & the GOP members of the gang of 8 blew off the Russia warnings. I wouldn’t be surprised if Reagan blew off some kind of warning from Carter during that transition too, although I don’t think anything as bad as the above two things has been reported. And considering that Nixon interfered with the peace talks and Reagan interfered with the hostage negotiations, confirmation of this supposition wouldn’t be a big surprise. It’s always projection, and I cannot help wonder how long it’s been going on.

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @opiejeanne: I just read the write ups from last November when the ruling was handed down. It appears the Federal judge who issued the ruling thinks this is covered under assault and battery, up to, potentially, sexual assault. Especially of children.

  88. 88.

    jl

    @opiejeanne: Didn’t recognize what that was about, so I looked it up. Wow. it is sickening. Looks like a states rights issue, legally. I’m tired of the double standard on states rights. It’s used as a political weapon. Seems to me on, for example, draconian laws on recreational drugs and harm reduction for users of illegal recreational drugs, feds do all sorts of things that violate states rights, but something like this, oh, well, have to be real careful of states rights.

  89. 89.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: reasoning on the international treaty aspect seems to be just ‘too vague’. I’d like more detail on that than in the news stories I just read. The judge better have more than that.

  91. 91.

    jl

    @Cheryl Rofer: It is a small Shiite Muslim sect. On the other hand, we are increasing BFF with Sauid Arabia, which does worse than ‘ritual nicks’, if that is what this procedure actually is. Thing is, these are kids. The religion should just adjust itself so when people are adults they can get ritual nicked if they want.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Tenar Arha: Reagan conspired with the Iranians to delay the release of the hostages until after the election in order to depress votes for Carter’s reelection by making him look weak. The source for the Newsweek article (third link) is Dewey Claridge, who was the Chief of the Latin American Section at the CIA from 1981 to 1987.
    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-bird-conspiracies-october-surprises-20170620-story.html
    https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/15/world/new-reports-say-1980-reagan-campaign-tried-to-delay-hostage-release.html
    https://www.newsweek.com/2016/05/06/duane-dewey-clarridge-october-surprise-spies-cia-451611.html

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: Glad they got him. Not surprised at his description. Of course, i’m sure he’s innocent because Candace Owens told me yesterday that there’s no such thing as white supremacy.

  97. 97.

    opiejeanne

    @Adam L Silverman: I read what the judge said, but only 27 states have laws against FGM, and who is going to bring the child abuse charges.

    Just a nick? My ass. Let’s give the doctor a little nick.

  99. 99.

    opiejeanne

    @Cheryl Rofer: The Talibanvagelicals. After reading about the period/fertility/pregnancy apps for women to keep track of their cycles, but that the data collected by the app is available to employers and health insurance companies, I feel like the war against women is moving toward becoming a Hot War.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @matt:
    You follow, admire, vote for, in any fucking way appreciate Trump and it proves that your IQ is in single digits, no matter what it might have ever been.
    It’s a magic, semi secret society that stamps out every working neuron you ever possessed. There’s nothing difficult to understand why or how it works, just being a republican gives one an automatic card that they carry, which works on a world wide network out of a lair on a small island off of Bermuda.
    It’s the AWNC – Anti Working Neuron Club.

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    @Tenar Arha:

    I cannot help wonder how long it’s been going on.

    You said it yourself – always.
    Conservatives do not trust anyone more liberal than themselves, because the reason those people are more liberal is that they respect others, they don’t mind helping others and they do not consider theft as a proper way to enrich themselves, nor do they consider that enriching one’s self can only be done by increasing a bank account.

  105. 105.

    opiejeanne

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks, I didn’t think you were. I’m just really starting to get worried. The asshat in Texas who proposed that a woman who gets an abortion, even in another state should be executed, and so many other recent horrors are just getting to me.

  109. 109.

    worn

    @Adam L Silverman: Robert Pastor was a friend of my parents when he lived in Atlanta. He and his family lived one street over; his son and my younger brother were best friends.

    Dr. Pastor, who was working in the White House at the time of the 1980 election, was adamant that the Reagan campaign did this. I remember him sitting in our living room recounting that experience.

    It made quite an impression on a much younger me, and I’ve never doubted the subterfuge since.

  111. 111.

    worn

    You’re welcome. It’s rare (read: never before) that I have some direct experience that has any bearing on these sorts of high level matters, so I couldn’t resist delurking for a moment.

    My dad was managing editor of the AJC at the time, so I got to meet some interesting folks – and hear some interesting stories. Maybe at some point I will recount when the GBI attempted to entrap Vince Dooley on a cocaine charge. They were not successful. But it was a shit show.

    Sometimes I miss my home state…

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    @worn: Feel free to comment as much as you’re comfortable with.

    I did my undergrad at Emory and interned at the Carter Center.

  113. 113.

    Mart

    @opiejeanne: Although abortion rates have declined significantly, nearly 25% of women in the USA will have an abortion by age 45. Do these idiots have any clue what horror they are proposing?

  114. 114.

    worn

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh, I know. I’ve read* most of your posts since your arrival here. And this background is part of why I spoke up. I grew up a few miles from Emory, though I bounced for the left coast in the early 90’s.

    *quite look forward to them, actually!

  115. 115.

    SWMBO

    @Mart: Yes they know. They don’t care. If they would just put it in the law that any aborted fetus must have a paternity test and the father must suffer the same consequences.

  118. 118.

    J R in WV

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I worked for on, former US Attorney guy, years ago. When he fired my direct supervisor for allowing some contractors to run wild in our network architecture, serving illegal first-run movies from a government server, etc instead of doing the job they undertook to do, he didn’t read the agreement he sent to my former boss to sign.

    It didn’t fire my former boss when former boss was thru with it and sent it back signed, then former U S Attorney guy signed it, and former boss was good for as long as he wanted to work… never sign a binding document without reading it. Nothing wrong with making a doc read as you want it to, signing it and sending it back. Part of negotiating.

    My new boss was dumb founded when he dug out the old doc when former boss showed up to work after 2 years working at a local state college. But nothing he could do at that point.

    Former US Attorney is now selling real estate…

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