The FBI improperly performed warrantless searches on more than a quarter-million U.S. citizens in a single year, a 127-page court filing unsealed Friday by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), in the latest instance of FBI abuse of its powers to make the news.
The FBI conducted more than 278,000 illegitimate queries on citizens, including some George Floyd protestors and more than nineteen thousand donors to a Congressional campaign, in the 12 months ending November 2021.
The FBI conducted search queries on U.S. citizens without any justification or evidence of wrongdoing, the court filing reveals.
The release of the findings of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request comes in the wake of Special Counsel John Durham’s report documenting numerous instances of serious misconduct by the FBI conducting surveillance of members of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign.
“FBI is at it again,” constitutional scholar Mark Levin tweeted Saturday, drawing attention to yet another apparent instance of FBI abuse of power, in which agents showed up at the door of a pro-life activist’s mother.
Levin linked to a Fox News article with a video showing FBI agents sought to speak with Elise Ketch, the pro-life daughter, refused to specify why, and then left and were never heard from again after being told to contact her lawyer.
"I can only take this as an intimidation tactic at this point," Ketch told Fox News on Friday.
"They're going after everybody," Ketch, a pro-life progressive, said. "The FBI is being weaponized against all of us.’"
News of the incident resurfaced as House Republicans continued their probe into the weaponization of government in furtherance of the Biden Administration’s political goals.