A Gap in Surveillance, but Ways Around It
But interviews with law enforcement and intelligence officials about what they will do in the interim suggest there are multiple workarounds to the gap.
One of the expiring laws permitted wiretap orders of “lone wolf” terrorism suspects who are not part of a foreign group, a provision that has apparently never been used. A second permitted “roving” wiretap orders that follow suspects who change phones, a provision that apparently has been used only rarely.
The third permitted court orders requiring businesses to turn over records that are relevant to a national security investigation, the provision known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act. In addition to the bulk phone records program, the F.B.I. used Section 215 about 160 times last year to obtain particular business records, like suspects’ Internet activity logs.
All three of the laws contained a so-called grandfather clause that permits their authority to continue indefinitely for any investigation that had begun before June 1.
Law enforcement officials have made it clear that the F.B.I. has long-running, open-ended “enterprise” investigations into groups that pose a threat to public safety, like Al Qaeda. A senior intelligence official recently told The New York Times that the administration was open to invoking the grandfather clause to get the records if a need arose during any lapse.
In addition, several officials said, in most terrorism-related cases the F.B.I. could instead use a grand jury subpoena to get the records it wanted by invoking rules for investigations into standard crimes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/us/a-gap-in-surveillance-but-ways-around-it.html
