Memorandum Opinion and Order, [REDACTED]

Holding, Findings, and Matters of Law

The government amended FBI querying procedures to state, “The FBI must generate and maintain an electronic record of each USP query term used for a query of unminimized content or noncontent information acquired pursuant to section 702.” Court held this met requirements of 702(f)(1)(B). Amended procedures also required that “[p]rior to reviewing the unminimized contents of section 702-acquired information retrieved using a USP query term,” FBI personnel must “provide a written statement of facts showing that the query was reasonably likely to retrieve foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime.” Court held this met statutory and 4th Amendment requirements. Agreed to implementation strategy, requiring written report by Sept. 26, 2019 and intervals of 45 days thereafter until FBI systems are fully compliant.

Description

The Court approved the FBI’s amended querying procedures and held that the FBI’s minimization and querying procedures were consistent with § 702 and the Fourth Amendment.