Records Obtained by the ACLJ Show Clapper’s ODNI Rushed to Change Raw SIGINT
Sharing Rules Before President Trump’s Inauguration


ACLJ FOIA: Clapper Rushed to Change Intel Rules


By  <https://aclj.org/writers/jay-sekulow> Jay Sekulow18 hrs. ago June 25,
2019

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) obtained records that show
that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), under
Director James Clapper, was eager and actively pushing to get its new
procedures in place increasing access to raw signal intelligence before the
conclusion of the Obama Administration and before President Trump took
office.

The documents the ACLJ obtained in one of our Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) lawsuits – this one
<https://aclj.org/national-security/aclj-files-lawsuit-and-more-foia-request
s-to-uncover-deep-states-political-spying> against the ODNI and the National
Security Agency (NSA)[1] – confirmed what we suspected:  the ODNI rushed to
get the new
<http://media.aclj.org/pdf/Page-3-from-ODNI-FOIA-Production-to-ACLJ-2.pdf>
“procedures signed by the Attorney General before the conclusion of this
administration.”[2]

The documents also reveal that ODNI’s Robert Litt told Office of the
Undersecretary of Defense’s Director of Intelligence Strategy, Policy, &
Integration (and also USDI’s Liaison to ODNI):
<http://media.aclj.org/pdf/Page-99-from-ODNI-FOIA-Production-to-ACLJ.pdf>
“Really want to get this done . . . and so does the Boss.”[3]

And, documents produced to the ACLJ by the NSA in this lawsuit show that NSA
officials discussing that they
<http://media.aclj.org/pdf/Page-6595368-1-from-NSA-FOIA-Production-to-ACLJ.p
df> “could have a signature from the AG as early as this week, certainly
prior to the 20th Jan.”[4] In other words, certainly before President
Trump’s Inauguration.

It was not immediately clear just how significant these revelations were.
Now we know and these records must be publicized.

Consider what we now know about the nature and degree of Deep State
opposition to President Trump. With the public revelations about the
infamous disgrace known as the Steele dossier, FISA abuse and the
underpinnings of Crossfire Hurricane, as well as former-DNI James Clapper’s
open hostility to President Trump and intentional leaking by senior law
enforcement and intelligence actors – all of which appears to show a
coordinated effort across agencies to oppose the Trump Administration – the
picture is coming in to focus.

As part of the ACLJ’s government accountability project and FOIA practice,
we went to work to uncover everything we could about the embedded
“resistance” operating within our government. In this particular instance,
it concerned us when we heard that, according to the
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/nsa-gets-more-latitude-to-sh
are-intercepted-communications.html?_r=0> New York Times[5], “[i]n its final
days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National
Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with
the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy
protections.”

On December 15, 2016, after President Trump’s election, DNI James Clapper
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3283349-Raw-12333-surveillance-shar
ing-guidelines.html> executed a document[6] entitled “Procedures for the
Availability or Dissemination of Raw Signals Intelligence Information by the
National Security Agency Under Section 2.3 of Executive Order 12333.” On
January 3, 2017, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch executed the document,
indicating her approval.

According to the
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/nsa-gets-more-latitude-to-sh
are-intercepted-communications.html?_r=0> New York Times[5], “[t]he new
rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with
the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations.”
Authority for these new procedures derives from
<https://www.dni.gov/index.php/ic-legal-reference-book/executive-order-12333
> Executive Order 12333[7], last amended by President Bush in 2008, which
provided:

Elements of the Intelligence Community are authorized to collect, retain, or
disseminate information concerning United States persons only in accordance
with procedures established by the head of the Intelligence Community
element concerned or by the head of a department containing such element and
approved by the Attorney General, consistent with the authorities provided
by Part 1 of this Order, after consultation with the Director.

The
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/nsa-gets-more-latitude-to-sh
are-intercepted-communications.html?_r=0> New York Times[5] had first
reported in 2014 that deliberations by Obama Administration officials on
developing these procedures were occurring. But, apparently, the new
procedures were not completed by the Director of National Intelligence and
approved by the Attorney General until just weeks before the end of
President Obama’s tenure.

As
<https://aclj.org/national-security/is-the-intelligence-community-trying-to-
subvert-our-national-security> we cautioned[8] at the time, this significant
policy change appears to have a direct correlation to the exponentially
increased number of intel leaks the Trump Administration has been dealing
with. The ACLJ was concerned with what appeared to be a
<https://aclj.org/national-security/aclj-requests-records-from-doj-and-intel
ligence-agencies-on-obama-administrations-last-minute-expansion-of-access-to
-intelligence-information> troubling step[9].

By greatly expanding access to classified information by unelected,
unaccountable bureaucrats, the Obama Administration paved the way for a
shadow government to leak that classified information – endangering our
national security and severely jeopardizing the integrity and reputation of
our critical national security apparatus – in an attempt to undermine
President Trump.

While sharing information among intelligence agencies is not a new concept,
and this isn’t the first time an Administration has made amendments to
intelligence policy, the timing was just way to suspicious.

The ACLJ’s FOIA requests to the ODNI and the NSA sought, among other things,
all records:

“referencing, connected to, or regarding in any way their approval of the
procedures set forth in the document entitled “Procedures for the
Availability or Dissemination of Raw Signals Intelligence Information by the
National Security Agency Under Section 2.3 of Executive Order 12333,” which
Director of National Intelligence Clapper executed on December 15, 2016, and
which then-Attorney General Lynch approved on January 3, 2017.”

We sent these
<https://aclj.org/national-security/aclj-requests-records-from-doj-and-intel
ligence-agencies-on-obama-administrations-last-minute-expansion-of-access-to
-intelligence-information> FOIA requests[9] specifically “to find out why
the Obama Administration waited until mere days before a new Administration
took over to implement a significant change in intelligence policy.” After
the ODNI and the NSA provided us with non-compliant responses, the ACLJ took
these agencies to federal court in Washington. The case is styled, ACLJ v.
U.S. National Security Agency, U.S. Office of the Director of National
Intelligence, 16-cv-645-RC (D.D.C.).

Our team is continuing to review these documents in light of the revelations
coming to light. 

EM         -> { Trump for 2020 }

On the 49th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko" 

 

 

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