The Coming Battle Over Surveillance

As mystery continues to swirl around the February resignation of General Mike Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, an already-contentious government program that monitors terrorists and helps disrupt their plots is in trouble.

How Flynn's conversations with the Russian ambassador were intercepted is not yet known. But some Republican lawmakers have pointed to potential abuse of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes, whose committee is investigating Russian election interference, suggested in February that Obama holdovers were behind the leaks that precipitated Flynn's resignation.

Nunes's committee wants to know how the general's calls were obtained and who made the decision to expose his name, which typically would have been redacted, in the transcripts of the calls. "I have been very clear about my concern about .  .  . the incidental collection on General Flynn, how that was put into a product, how it was unmasked, how it was leaked to the public," Nunes told reporters in March. "Several crimes have been committed here."

Read the full article at The Weekly Standard.