Jason Leopold Profile picture
Nov 1, 2022 • 18 tweets • 12 min read • Read on X
NEW #FOIA SCOOP/🧵Took me 6 yrs to pry this out of NSA

A few wks before @Snowden's leaks were published, 2 NSA employees contacted NSA IG to blow the whistle on unauthorized surveillance

IG substantiated it

W/@KatrinaManson @WilliamTurton @rj_gallagher
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… ImageImageImageImage
This NSA report, which, including supplemental material, totals more than 400 pages, has never been disclosed before nor have the details related to this incident. It is a missing piece of history and is extremely noteworthy.

2/
On March 12, 2013, @RonWyden asked then DNI James Clapper at a congressional hearing if NSA was collecting data on Americans

“No sir,” Clapper said. “Not wittingly.”

A couple wks earlier, an NSA analyst began to raise red flags about unauthorized surveillance activities

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This NSA employee, ID'd in the IG report as a global network analyst & referred to as "the source," spent the next several months trying to get NSA officials to address concerns abt another employee's SIGINT project that targeted a "large volume" of US persons phone numbers

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The global network analyst provided NSA officials with detailed info & data about how the other analyst's project was violating NSA surveillance rules and possibly the law. But the global network analyst was ultimately rebuffed.

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So on May 7, 2013, just about a month before the first stories based on @Snowden docs about NSA's vast surveillance programs, were pubbed, the global network analyst and another NSA employee contacted the IG

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There is no indication in the IG report that the events are related to NSA activities and programs revealed in the Snowden docs. However, the IG investigation occurred during a period in which the NSA was under intense pressure to address alleged wrongdoings.  

6/
The NSA employee who was accused of wrongdoing and collecting "a large volume" of US person phone numbers with "no foreign intelligence purpose" became highly defensive during the IG's probe.

This is an email he sent in June 26, 2013, a few weeks after @Snowden disclosures

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The NSA employee who was accused of wrongdoing and collecting "a large volume" of US person phone numbers with "no foreign intelligence purpose" became highly defensive during the IG's probe.

This is an email he sent in June 26, 2013, a few weeks after @Snowden disclosures

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The NSA IG spent 3 years investigating whistleblowers allegations and whether the senior analyst violated the law by wrongfully collecting US persons' communications.

A year into the investigation, the whistleblower reached out to the IG again.

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In late December 2015, the NSA IG concluded its investigation and presented the findings to the analyst accused of improperly collecting US persons' comms. The analyst provided a point by point rebuttal which is heavily redacted.

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The NSA IG completed it's report in February 2016 and substantiated all of the whistleblowers' allegations.

The IG also called to attn a lack of oversight by NSA officials who told the IG they were aware of the analyst's project but didn't understand what he was doing.

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Then-NSA IG George Ellard sent a memo to the NSA's Signal Intelligence Director saying the analyst may have violated two provisions of FISA and clearly violated NSA internal policies and procedures related to the collection of US persons comms.

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It's unknown if the analyst was ever held accountable.

The NSA would not respond to detailed questions. Instead, the agency issued a statement to Bloomberg.

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.@RonWyden, who has spearheaded surveillance reforms, told Bloomberg this previously unreleased NSA IG report "further confirms that intelligence agencies sometimes commit abuses and violations."

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Finally, we reached out to @Snowden and shared the report with him because the timing of the allegations and the IG investigation are noteworthy as it relates to his revelations of surveillance absues at the agency

He told Bloomberg in a statement through his lawyer:

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More from @JasonLeopold

Oct 25
NEW FOIA Files newsletter is out!

Emails and text messages obtained by FOIA Files from the US Forest Service reveal how investigators responded to threats aimed at FEMA personnel who were aiding victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina Image
After my former @BuzzFeedNews colleague @bri_sacks (a kickass reporter) broke the story in WaPo that
a North Carolina man—armed with an assault rifle—threatened FEMA personnel, forcing them to be relocated I deployed the Freedom of Information Act to see what else I could find out.
Using the FOIA to report breaking news is really difficult because federal agencies are required to respond to requests within 20 working days, long past the date of “breaking” news. But there are ways journalists can speed up the process. You can ask an agency to grant you expedited processing because there’s a threat to life and safety and an urgency to inform the public about actual government activity. That cuts the response time down to 10 calendar days if you can make a compelling case and the agency agrees.
Read 13 tweets
Oct 18
NEW FOIA Files newsletter is out! IRS dropped the motherlode in my lap: 1600 pages of docs I've been waiting 4 yrs for about the controversial decision to emblazon Trump’s name on millions of Covid-era stimulus checks

🧵
bloomberg.com/news/newslette…Image
It turns out the IRS took the extraordinary step of seeking a legal opinion on whether it was appropriate to add Trump's name to the checks.

IRS officials were worried that they were personally being used by the White House to promote Trump’s reelection and would be in violation of the Hatch Act and other federal laws.

The conclusion: it was legalImage
When the news broke, coverage was focused on Mnuchin and what led to the Treasury’s decision to add Trump’s name to the checks. To this day, there still isn’t a definitive answer.

But what had gone unreported, until now, is the uproar that ensued inside the IRS after Mnuchin’s directive was handed down.
Read 14 tweets
Aug 23
NEW FOIA Files newsletter:

I obtained damning internal reports that show USAID probed allegations of bribery, child labor & child sexual abuse at humanitarian orgs it funds, Twitter threats posted from its own employee & the outing of a CIA officer
🧵
bloomberg.com/news/newslette…

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In February, I filed a #FOIA request with the agency’s internal watchdog – the Office of Inspector General – for all of its final reports on closed investigations in 2023 and 2024. That’s generally a pretty good way to find out if there's been any accountability for wrongdoing related to an agency's work.
A couple months after I filed my request, the inspector general’s FOIA office did something uncommon, compared with other federal agencies: it released documents to me every two weeks – nearly 400 pages.
Read 21 tweets
Aug 2
FOIA Files EXCLUSIVE: It took 11 yrs & 3 separate #FOIA requests but I finally obtained docs from DOJ about the agency's legal analysis of the trillion-dollar platinum coin, which #MintTheCoin advocates view as a way to circumvent the cycle of debt crises
🧵
bloomberg.com/news/newslette…Image
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The docs show that a “large denomination platinum coin” was indeed discussed at the highest levels of govt. But there’s a huge caveat. The records are pretty heavily redacted. Still, there's useful details to glean, many of which will be of interest to all you trillion dollar coin aficionados.Image
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As far as I’m aware, this is the first time since discussions about the platinum coin began more than a decade ago that the DOJ has released any portion of its analysis related to it.
Read 10 tweets
Jul 17
NEW FOIA Files SPECIAL EDITION: 2 yrs ago, I filed a #FOIA request w/Secret Service for records of threats to Trump & security breaches at MAL between 2017& 2024. Last Wed, Secret Service finally turned over the documents. They're wild.

🧵

bloomberg.com/news/newslette…



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Long before the assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday, I spent years using the #FOIA to look into the way the Secret Service responded to threats against all of its protectees & political violence in general.
The 159 pages of records I received from Secret Service last Wednesday provide a behind the scenes look at how the agency responds to potential threats against presidential protectees.
Read 9 tweets
Jun 13
BIG SCOOP: I obtained the 266-page transcript of the intv Special Counsel Robert Hur's team conducted with Biden's ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, during their probe into Biden's handling of classified records

A FOIA Files special edition (please subscribe)
bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
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Portions of Zwonitzer’s testimony were briefly mentioned in Hur’s final report, but the transcript fleshes out the narrative of how he ended up entangled in the high-profile investigation and reveals what he told Hur's team Image
Zwonitzer was fiercely protective of Biden. He noted more than once that Biden’s memory was sound – in stark contrast to Hur’s own conclusions –and that much of what ended up in his book came from the president’s diaries and recollections.
Read 12 tweets

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