Security News > 2020 > March > How National Security Surveillance Nabs More Than Spies
Current and former officials say just because a FISA warrant produces charges other than national security ones doesn't mean the target is no longer considered a national security threat.
Prosecutors produced a statement from Attorney General William Barr saying the FISA materials held classified information about counterterrorism investigations and that disclosing them would harm national security.
The Justice Department says the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act explicitly permits law enforcement to use evidence from FISA warrants for domestic criminal prosecutions and that it makes obvious sense to do so.
Targets of the surveillance are consistently denied copies of FISA applications, making it hard for them to know the accuracy of the information given to the court, to learn why precisely prosecutors considered them a national security concern and to contest the legitimacy of the search.
Other recent FISA warrants have been incorporated into prosecutions with no national security charges.