During The Dan Bongino Radio Show Friday, Dan Bongino forced Speaker of the House Mike Johson to justify his support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a law used by the deep state to spy on Americans.
Intelligence officials in pursuit of foreign nationals abroad use Section 702 of FISA to gather personal information on American citizens without a warrant. Last week, Johnson cast the deciding vote against an amendment to FISA that would have prohibited warrantless domestic surveillance.
Johnson was previously in support of an amendment to protect Americans' Fourth Amendment constitutional rights but changed his mind after having a “confidential briefing” with deep state officials. Since then, several House Republicans have threatened to remove Johnson as speaker — a move Bongino ultimately opposes. That doesn’t mean Bongino isn’t critical of Johnson’s performance as speaker, however.
“I really object to the argument that there are protections built into the FISA reauthorization,” said Bongino, anticipating that Johson would try to justify Section 702. “Mr. Speaker, we already have protections. It's called the Constitution. Getting a warrant is not supposed to be easy... How do you answer your critics who want to see this shut down?”
Johnson responded by first trying to assure Bongino and his listeners that if federal agents abuse FISA, they will now “go to prison for 10 years.” However, warrantless spying itself is abusive, as it is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Johnson did not address the act’s unconstitutionality, instead insisting that warrantless spying on Americans is necessary and the reason “we've not had another 9/11.”
“Why not just get a warrant anytime it ensnares an American,” Bongino pressed.
Johnson responded with a lengthy explanation, essentially arguing that obtaining a warrant takes too long when intelligence agents are attempting to quickly thwart potential acts of terrorism. “You know how it works to get a warrant,” said Johnson. “It takes a long time. You’ve gotta put on a probable cause hearing.”
“Mr. Speaker, it really doesn't,” said Bongino. “I'm sorry, but it doesn't. You can get a phone warrant like that in an emergency circumstance… It can happen in minutes. There's a magistrate on duty for that.”
Johnson then tried to claim that unnamed “analysts” and “experts “ believe there aren’t enough judges to quickly process warrant requests, to which Bongino stated, “We can hire more judges, we can't find the new constitution…”
While Bongino has publicly opposed measures to remove Johson from the speakership, he implored Johson to reconsider his support of FISA and protect Americans' Fourth Amendment rights. “Candidly sir,” said Bongino, “I think you've been misled by some people.”
Watch the full interview below:
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