Mike Johnson’s Surveillance Push Has a Thomas Massie Problem
Mike Johnson’s Surveillance Push Has a Thomas Massie Problem
Republicans who care about civil liberties seek to block the renewal of FISA Section 702.
Two years ago, Donald Trump wrote, “KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!”
But these days, Trump favors renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). On Thursday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana revealed a bill to do precisely that. Johnson’s push came one week after 20 Republicans voted against, and thus helped block, his prior FISA renewal bill.
Perhaps the most vocal Republican opponent of FISA renewal has been Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
Last week, Massie shared on X, “Last night between midnight and 2am, they tried to pass two bad versions of FISA.”
“They” being the House and its speaker, Johnson.
“Both would have allowed Feds to unconstitutionally spy on Americans,” Massie said. “We stopped both versions, but the fight isn’t over. Eventually, it was decided to give them two more weeks to fix FISA.”
Not just Trump, but also Johnson, used to make the same kinds of arguments against FISA surveillance. Nevertheless, Trump, Johnson, and the majority of Republicans now disagree with Massie and want an 18-month renewal of FISA’s Section 702, which allows the U.S. government to conduct surveillance of foreign nationals outside the United States—foreigners who are often in communication with American citizens who can get surveilled in the process.
Thanks to Massie and other Republicans who care about civil liberties, the FISA provision hasn’t been renewed. But neither has it been reformed or killed; it’s set to expire on April 30, and the fight certainly isn’t over.
Again, Massie’s opposition—being against warrantless surveillance of American citizens—is basically the same as Trump’s previous position.
Back in March 2018, Trump said on X,
The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!
Trump was talking about the now discredited “Russian collusion” conspiracy theory concocted by Democrats, which held that the president had worked in cahoots with Russia to turn the 2016 presidential election in his favor, for which an extensive two year investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence.
During the 2016 campaign, the FBI applied for a FISA court warrant to conduct surveillance against Trump’s then-campaign advisor Carter Page, who was suspected of communicating with Russia because of allegations in the “Steele dossier,” which has since been revealed to have been bogus. Page was never charged with a single crime over this.
The government was spying on Trump’s campaign, something Trump must still know. The president shared on X in July 2018, “Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC.”
In a 2021 Senate committee hearing with then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that in cases where the government was eavesdropping on a non-U.S. citizen overseas as part of an investigation, “I’m actually fine with the FISA standard.”
But Paul added, “I’m not fine with the FISA standard for Americans, particularly Americans that are running for office. Particularly for the person running for the highest office who is interconnected with all kinds of countries and always will be.”
Libertarian-leaning Republicans like Paul and Massie have long been critics of the warrantless surveillance of Americans in general, not just elected officials. Trump’s own Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reportedly also has concerns about renewing FISA’s Section 702 without reforms.
Along with Massie, the 20 Republicans who opposed the 18-month FISA renewal last week were Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Andy Harris (R-MD), Mark Harris (R-NC), Scott Perry (R-PA), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Keith Self (R-TX), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Warren Davidson (R-OH), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Mary Miller (R-IL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), John Rose (R-TN), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), Sheri Biggs (R-SC) and Eli Crane (R-AZ).
Independent journalist Nick Sortor caught Massie on camera leaving the House after that vote early Friday morning with a video timestamp of 2:31 a.m.
In other words, it had been a long night.
Sortor asked Massie, “Why do you think that they are continuing to try to force this through?”
Massie didn’t hesitate. “It’s a deep state. It’s a deep state,” he replied. “That’s what it does.”
It is what it does. Expect Speaker Mike Johnson to keep doing what he does also, especially between now and April 30.
We should hope Thomas Massie and this minority of civil liberties-minded Republicans keep doing what they’re doing, too.
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