America's Secret Court

Penthouse
June, 1999

America's Secret Court
By  PAUL DERIENZO and JOAN MOOSSY,

(President Trump says President Obama had him wiretapped using a FISA warrant. Here's some background from an article I wrote about the secret court that makes the decision to approve a FISA warrant.)

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court deliberates in a vault-like room in the Dept. of Justice in DC. It issues no written opinions, and since 1978 has yet to turn down even one of some 10,000 requests for wiretaps and search warrants.

Imagine a secret court made up of anonymous judges chosen by the Chief Justice of the United States and empowered to grant wiretaps, approve break-ins, bug psychiatrists' offices and people's homes-all without probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed. Its hearings are conducted in secret, without notification of the proposed targets and under a novel definition of due process that allows suspension of long-held civil rights in the name of national security... MORE