Today the DNI, in consultation with the Department of Justice, is releasing in redacted form the 18th Semiannual Assessment of Compliance with Procedures and Guidelines Issued Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Submitted by the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence (“Joint Assessment”). The DNI is releasing this semiannual assessment proactively, in keeping with the Principles of Intelligence Transparency for the Intelligence Community (IC) (“IC’s Transparency Principles”).
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (hereafter FAA), which was in effect during the reporting period of this 18th Joint Assessment required the Attorney General and the DNI to assess compliance with Section 702 procedures over a particular six month period and to submit such assessments semiannually to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and relevant congressional committees. See then-codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1881(l)(1); now codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1881(m)(1) with the enactment of the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 (hereafter FAA Reauthorization of 2017). A joint team of experts (the Joint Oversight Team) from DOJ and ODNI conduct these assessments.
This Joint Assessment describes the extensive measures the Government has undertaken to ensure compliance with FISC-approved targeting and minimization procedures; to accurately identify, record, and correct errors; to take responsive actions to remove any erroneously obtained data; and to minimize the chances that mistakes will recur. This Joint Assessment found that the agencies continue to implement the procedures in a manner that reflects a focused and concerted effort by IC personnel to comply with the requirements of Section 702, including being appropriately focused on directing efforts at non-United States persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States for the purpose of acquiring foreign intelligence information.
Since the release of the 9th Joint Assessment (dated August 2013), in redacted form, on August 21, 2013, on IC on the Record, ODNI and DOJ have prepared subsequent Joint Assessments to enhance public readability, where feasible. Consistent with the IC’s Transparency Principles, ODNI coordinated an extensive interagency review process to ensure the greatest transparency while protecting national security information, in order to enhance public understanding of the government’s implementation of Section 702. Most recently, the 16th and 17th Joint Assessments were released in October 2018, adding to the previous releases of the 13th – 15th in January 2017; the 10th – 12th; and the 1st – 3rd Joint Assessments.
Below is today’s release, in redacted form, of the: