FBI Director Christopher Wray defended a controversial foreign surveillance tool on Wednesday during an oversight hearing, telling the House Judiciary Committee that the agency has made changes to protect the privacy of Americans.
But those arguments were a dud in front of Republicans, who criticized the breadth of the Section 702 program and zeroed in on how it allows U.S. authorities to run warrantless searches for information on Americans and criticized the volume of those searches.
The exchanges underscored the headwinds facing Justice Department and intelligence officials as they push for the reauthorization of the surveillance tool known as Section 702, which expires at the end of the year.
