“278,000 times, American citizens’ information was queried by your agency unintentionally? That’s your testimony?” Senator Josh Hawley asked on Tuesday, visibly shocked by FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate’s estimate of how many Americans the Bureau has “unintentionally” spied on.
Hawley had been questioning Abbate regarding the public release of the 1023 form pertaining to Joe Biden’s alleged foreign business dealings and why the FBI would not declassify the document to even redact the source’s name. Abbate repeated his conclusion that doing so could endanger the source’s life, prompting Hawley to question how seriously they were taking the source’s safety.
Hawley then reminded Abbate of the FISA Court’s finding that the FBI ran “278,000 unwarranted — probably illegal — queries on Americans,” to which Abbate replied, “With respect to the compliance incident, yes.”
“Compliance. You characterized the unlawful querying, 278,000 times, of American citizens as ‘compliance issues’?” Hawley continued.
“We’ve said before, I’ve said, that [it’s] totally unacceptable,” Abbate responded.
Hawley then pressed Abbate for an answer to who had been fired due to the overwhelming number of searches. “In the case of the unintentional instance, where something similar happened, we have fired people in the past,” Abbate replied.
“Wait, I’m sorry, what does that word salad mean? The ‘unintentional instance’? What does that mean? Who’s been fired for the 278,000 times that you improperly or illegally queried the database for American citizens?” Hawley pushed.
“When we find intentional incidents–” Abbate began before getting cut off by Hawley
“Wait, you’re saying that the 278,000 queries were unintentional?” the senator asked incredulously.
“I believe that’s correct,” Abbate replied, leaving Hawley in shock. “Wow,” he said, “278,000 times, American citizens’ information was queried by your agency unintentionally? That’s your testimony?”
“I would want to go back and check that, Senator, but yes, my understanding is that the vast majority of the–” Abbate attempted to explain further before being interrupted yet again.
“Wait, but that’s different. You just said it was, you just said it was unintentional, now it’s the vast majority? Which is it? Do you know?” Hawley shot back.
Abbate conceded that he would have to verify his understanding of the queries being unintentional, saying, “I don’t know the answer as we sit here today but I will find–”
Hawley wouldn’t let Abbate get away that easily, and pressed him further, asking, “So you don’t know?”
To which Abbate knows the sobering phrase, “My understanding is that likely all are — were unintentional.”
Just… Wow.
Abbate seemed like he would rather chew off his own tongue than to admit outright that no one was fired for the ‘unintentional’ illegal surveillance conducted against American citizens.