FBI “Assessments” and Warrantless Surveillance: Patrick Eddington Sounds the Alarm - Part 1

In this segment of America’s NewsHour, Bill Bernardoni welcomes back Patrick Eddington, senior fellow in Homeland Security and Civil Liberties at the Cato Institute and a former CIA analyst, to break down a troubling new development involving the FBI. Eddington explains how revisions to Attorney General guidelines at the end of the George W. Bush administration created a new category of investigation known as an “assessment,” allowing the Bureau to open inquiries without criminal predicate, probable cause, or court approval. According to a Government Accountability Office review, the FBI opened more than a thousand “Sensitive Investigative Matter” assessments, including cases involving politicians, religious organizations, academics, and media outlets. The conversation explores the constitutional implications, the lack of judicial oversight, bipartisan failures in congressional accountability, and what meaningful oversight reform would require going forward.

Should the FBI be allowed to open investigations without probable cause or a court order in the name of national security?