Sens Wyden, Coons Slam DOJ Reply on FBI Hacking Power Expansion

Sens Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Chris Coons (D-DE) slammed the Justice Department for ducking lawmakers’ questions about an upcoming expansion of FBI hacking powers.

Sens Wyden and Coons were among 11 senators and 12 House members who queried DOJ about the hacking powers expansion in Oct. The department’s reply, which arrived Nov 22, should be “a big blinking warning sign about whether the government can be trusted to carry out these hacks without harming the security and privacy of innocent Americans’ phones, computers and other devices,” Sen Wyden wrote. Sens Wyden and Coons are also cosponsors of a bipartisan bill that would put a nine-month hold on the powers expansion, which will go into effect Dec 1 unless Congress intervenes. The expansion is an update to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Under the revised rule, a federal judge would be able to issue a warrant allowing police to hack into computers in multiple judicial districts rather than just the district in which that judge presides. Judges could also issue warrants to search a computer or device when the user has masked the device’s location.