Justin Amash Blasts Trump For Authorizing Government To ‘Unconstitutionally Collect And Search’ Americans
Libertarian-leaning Republican Justin Amash is continuing his attacks on President Donald Trump. After calling for the president’s impeachment, and blasting Attorney General William Barr for allegedly misrepresenting Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Amash is now turning his attention toward Trump’s purported history of supporting unwarranted federal surveillance.
In a new tweet, Amash criticized Trump for threatening to veto his amendment to reform Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments (FISA) 702, which allows for the surveillance of foreigners outside the United States. Amash then continued to criticize the president for subsequently authorizing a FISA bill which Amash claims would allow the government to collect and search American communications without a warrant.
“The Administration strongly opposes the USA Rights amendment to the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act, which the House will consider tomorrow,” a statement from the White House read, in response to Amash’s amendment.
“This amendment would re-establish the walls between intelligence and law enforcement that our country knocked down following the attacks of 9/11 in order to increase information sharing and improve our national security.”
Reason reports that Amash’s fight against unwarranted federal surveillance — surveillance authorized by both the USA PATRIOT Act and the FISA — has been met with opposition from both the Trump and Obama administrations.
That time President Trump issued a veto threat against my amendment that would reform FISA 702 to protect your rights. The president then signed a FISA bill to authorize the government to unconstitutionally collect and search the communications of Americans without a warrant. pic.twitter.com/yb3Osa9m7S
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) June 2, 2019
Since Amash called for Trump’s impeachment, he has been receiving heat from Trump supporters, many of whom attack him for betraying the party.
If Phony @justinamash were a TRUE libertarian, he wouldn’t stand for abuse of FBI power, spying, & bogus dossiers funded by political foes and fed to secret FISA courts. He is just another Grandstanding Swamp Creature auditioning for the approval of the liberal media.
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) May 29, 2019
The Obama administration is currently under fire for alleged FISA abuse, and is the subject of a current Justice Department investigation. As The Inquisitr reported, the investigation is attempting to determine if the issuing of FISA warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was done illegally.
“Why did you say nothing about the FISA abuses?” one Trump supporter asked at Amash’s town hall. “If you care about the constitution so much, why didn’t you say anything about the yearlong violation of the Fourth Amendment rights of Trump and his entire transition team?”
Amash responded by outlining his history of fighting FISA abuse, and said that Trump and his supporters use FISA abuse as “an excuse” to defend the president from misconduct accusations.
Along with Amash and many Democrats, a new CNN/SSRS poll suggests that many more Americans are warming up to the idea of impeaching Trump. As The Inquisitr reported, approximately 41 percent of Americans are in favor of impeachment, which is the highest level of support for the move since December of 2018. However, as of now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — as well as select Democrats — doesn’t appear to be in favor of impeachment.
