FBI found to have foreign intelligence rule violations

The FBI has been noted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to have committed thousands of violations of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after performing improper foreign intelligence queries in relation to January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, as well as the racial justice protests following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, reports The Associated Press. Such violations uncovered by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence should prompt Congress to hold the FBI accountable, according to ACLU National Security Project Deputy Director Patrick Toomey. "These unlawful searches undermine our core constitutional rights and threaten the bedrock of our democracy. Its clear the FBI can't be left to police itself," Toomey added. Most of the violations were noted by senior FBI officials to have been caused by inadequate workforce awareness regarding querying standards, adding that compliance rates have risen from 82% to 96% following its implementation of mandatory training and computer system changes.