Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has been whipping Democratic support for an effectively clean reauthorization of the government’s warrantless spying program—or at least he was until Tuesday. On the news that President Trump was tapping Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence (DNI), Warner said in a statement that the appointment “speaks volumes about what this president expects from the nation’s top intelligence official,” and warned of the dangers of politicizing intelligence work.
“Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counterterrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience,” Warner said.
This has halted the advance of Warner’s compromise, as Democrats are expected to refuse to move forward on any action on warrantless spying as long as Pulte is the nominee. That’s a big problem for Republicans, who have been stymied from extending the measure, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
It’s more than a bit ironic that Pulte is the trigger for blowing up a bipartisan compromise deeply sought by the intelligence community, given that he is a deeply partisan actor. Semafor reported that Trump’s decision to tap Pulte was “swayed by longtime Republican operative Roger Stone and other MAGA forces inside the administration.” Sources characterized Pulte as a kind of bulldog willing to go to bat for the Trump administration as part of its efforts to declassify sensitive information, albeit selectively. Moreover, Semafor observed that Pulte is “close” with his soon-to-be predecessor Tulsi Gabbard, who is stepping down from her post on June 30.
The dirty secret is that DNI has not been a very powerful job since it was established in 2004. The position is intended to coordinate the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, which manifestly do not want to be coordinated. The Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies have far more sway over U.S. intelligence activities, and past directors have struggled to set or gain influence over policy.
Yet as acting DNI—while continuing to serve as chair of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—Pulte would also have near-limitless access to troves of Americans’ communications data, privacy advocates say. That makes him dangerous, separate from any policy matters.
“It is truly chilling to think about how he could misuse that access,” Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of liberty and national security at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the Prospect.
Pulte has been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Government Accountability Office into whether he misused his authority and federal resources to target the Trump administration’s perceived political enemies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, and disgraced former representative for California’s 14th Congressional District Eric Swalwell. That GAO investigation was prompted by a coalition of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) late last year.
Pulte’s appointment comes as intelligence hawks in the Senate were racing against the clock to reach a deal on the reauthorization of Section 702 before it expires June 12. According to a congressional aide who spoke to the Prospect on condition of anonymity, the draft text being circulated seeks to extend the 702 program by three years. It would also include language to tailor a 2024 expansion of the types of companies the government believes fall within the statutory definition of an electronic communication service provider (ECSP) that can be compelled to surveil Americans on its behalf, to align with what intelligence hawks had said the expansion would do in practice. This has been sold as a reform, but advocates don’t buy it.
The last FISA extension in 2024 enabled the government to “seize a broad range of companies’ information on Americans, including data centers, commercial real estate landlords, and other communication equipment operators.” Warner publicly promised to fix the language, but it has only been addressed here with a minor limitation. Warner “stabbed privacy in the back two years ago, promised to fix it, failed to, and now is telling Americans to be happy that he might finally remove the blade—but only if we accept mass warrantless surveillance for the rest of Trump’s second term,” said Sean Vitka with Demand Progress.
But the Warner compromise is now in some trouble. Members of Congress in favor of reforming Section 702 were in an uproar following Trump’s announcement on Pulte on Tuesday. Among them were Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). Both likened Pulte to Trump’s personal “henchman,” and urged their Democratic colleagues to vote against reauthorization.
On Wednesday, Demand Progress and 17 other pro–civil liberties grassroots advocacy organizations kicked off a campaign to hold 42 House Democrats accountable for voting in favor of reauthorization last month, calling on supporters to call, email, and post on social media to demand that “Trump’s Favorite Democrats” oppose extending Section 702 without meaningful privacy protections.
From his vantage point in the Senate, Wyden asserted that Trump tapping Pulte as acting DNI “is yet another reason that every single Democrat should refuse to reauthorize Section 702 without strong new safeguards for Americans’ rights.”
That includes Warner. Pointing to his statement on Pulte’s appointment, Goitein told the Prospect that if Warner “means what he says … he’s going to change his position, and he’s going to get behind a warrant requirement.” She said that failing to do so would “undermine his stated concerns with Pulte.”
Goitein continued: “He can’t have it both ways.”
For Hajar Hammado, senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, Warner “working in the background to hand these authorities to Trump and Pulte on a silver platter is incredibly concerning.”
So far, Warner is scrambling. According to Punchbowl, he told Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) that he would not be able to bring Democrats along for the compromise if Pulte was installed as DNI. He asked Thune to use his influence to get President Trump to stand down on Pulte.
Warner did not immediately respond to the Prospect’s request for comment.
