The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General published two semiannual joint assessments of the U.S. government’s compliance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The 25th and 26th assessments, which evaluated compliance from June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021, noted that the decline in reported incidents could have been skewed by the coronavirus pandemic.
DOJ and ODNI concluded that overall, FBI, CIA, the National Security Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center demonstrated a focused effort to follow guidelines and implement Section 702 of FISA. The rule authorizes targeted foreign intelligence data collection from non-U.S. individuals outside the country.
NSA targeting compliance incidents and FBI querying cases were significantly lower during the review period. DOJ and ODNI attributed the change to fewer U.S. trips made by Section 702 targets during the pandemic. FBI also conducted only four query audits of its field offices at the time, compared to 27 in 2019 and 29 in 2018.