--- title: Fears of Trump Winning Shape Surveillance Law Negotiations description: As Congress mulls tightening a warrantless spying program known as FISA, the prospect of Trump abusing that power is raising the stakes. canonical: https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-12-14T17:45:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:48.592Z article:section: Politics og:title: Fears of Trump Winning Shape Surveillance Law Negotiations og:description: As Congress mulls tightening a warrantless spying program known as FISA, the prospect of how Trump might use that power in a second term abusing that program is coloring the debate og:url: https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0576ce5cd58ca9a/698a43379d83e8295cb97f9d/GettyImages-1853584419.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Former President Trump Holds Rally In Coralville, Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fears of Trump Winning Shape Surveillance Law Negotiations twitter:description: As Congress mulls tightening a warrantless spying program known as FISA, the prospect of how Trump might use that power in a second term abusing that program is coloring the debate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0576ce5cd58ca9a/698a43379d83e8295cb97f9d/GettyImages-1853584419.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Fears of a Trump Win Add Urgency to Effort to Tighten Surveillance Laws > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=b61b78be-18ec-492a-835b-5fbf7be62088&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Breaking Down Trump's Four Indictments [Watch (HLS stream): Breaking Down Trump's Four Indictments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nDcHXqw3.m3u8) (5:40)  _Published 2023-09-14. TIME Senior Correspondent Brian Bennett explains all four of former President Donald Trump's criminal indictments._ by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/) and [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/) Dec 14, 2023 5:45 PM UTC  Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Hyatt Hotel on December 13, 2023 in Coralville, Iowa. Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Hyatt Hotel on December 13, 2023 in Coralville, Iowa. Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/) and [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/) Dec 14, 2023 5:45 PM UTC The prospect of Donald Trump using the powers of the presidency as a tool of retribution has raised the stakes for a bipartisan push by Congress to tighten what data on Americans federal investigators can search without a warrant. Donald Trump has said publicly in recent weeks that he wants to be “a dictator for one day,” that he will “root out” the “radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” Some Democrats in Congress are taking Trump at his word, giving new urgency to a long-standing effort to overhaul the controversial spying program authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows intelligence agencies to collect records of overseas communications of suspected terrorists and foreign intelligence agents. For years, civil liberties advocates have pushed to block the FBI from searching that trove of data for the records for Americans without first securing a warrant. The FBI has acknowledged repeatedly breaking its own rules and conducting improper searches. The current law under Section 702 is set to expire in April, after the House and Senate this week approved a short-term extension as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That creates a window early next year for lawmakers to debate meaningful changes to the FISA law. This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson [canceled](https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/politics/house-gop-leadership-pulls-dueling-fisa-bills/index.html) votes on a pair of dueling FISA bills amid disagreements over the program's future. The FBI currently makes some 200,000 queries of that database each year and has used it to check for members of the Black Lives Matter movement and people being investigated in Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection cases, according to court documents declassified earlier this year by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Those failures to protect Americans’ data from such searches have brought together an unlikely coalition of lawmakers to plug loopholes and increase Congressional oversight of the surveillance authority. "The abuses of Section 702 have taken place under presidents of both parties,” says Chris Baumohl, an expert on national security and intelligence surveillance law at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “That's why there's such a big bipartisan coalition to reform it.” While some Democrats in Congress have long supported putting more guardrails on FISA, the prospect of Trump potentially returning to the Oval Office in 2025 has intensified those efforts. ### More From TIME “We saw how he tried to weaponize these government agencies for his own personal political gain last time around,” says Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. “There’s no question to me that if he were to get reelected, he will be, double, triple times as bad as he was last time.” Some Republicans have their own motivations for wanting to revisit other authorities the FBI has under FISA dating back to the bureau’s sloppy work investigating links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian intelligence officials. That investigation led to the FBI using a different section of FISA to wiretap Carter Page, an oil industry consultant who had served as a foreign policy adviser on the Trump campaign. But the justifications the bureau made to the FISA court to maintain that surveillance contained errors and information from press reports and political opposition research. As a result, Rep. Jim Jordan, the firebrand Trump defender who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, backed a bill that would allow Congressional leaders to attend any FISA court proceeding and place new restrictions on the FBI around using news clips and political research reports to justify its surveillance requests to the court. The law would also restrict federal intelligence agencies from buying the data of Americans from third-party data brokers. That bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 6 with reforms that are “long overdue,” Jordan said in a statement, and would ensure Americans “are not subjected to unchecked surveillance by the federal government.” Jayapal also supports the FISA reforms that passed out of Jordan’s committee to protect Americans’ data and privacy. But, she says, Trump’s presidential candidacy has made putting in “really strong guardrails” more urgent, particularly given how he “says that he wants retribution, and he’s going to be a dictator on day one.” The House Judiciary bill is just one of the proposals lawmakers are considering. There’s a competing bill with fewer limits from the House Intelligence Committee that some privacy advocates say would actually expand what data the FBI can access. And there’s also an effort to reauthorize the existing law beyond its expiration date in April, which wouldn’t allow for any of the new proposed restrictions to go into effect, and could extend the existing powers into 2025. With the House set to depart in the coming days for the rest of the year, the window for reform may be closing. “I was hopeful that we’d be able to pass something this week that would have put pressure on the Senate,” says Jayapal. The decision this week by House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson to not put either of the competing reform bills up for a vote makes it harder for Congress to get anything done on the issue soon. Jayapal said she is nervous that sets the stage for FISA to be reauthorized with no changes “not just through April, but even beyond that.” Privacy experts are also concerned that the moment to curtail the FBI’s surveillance powers could pass without action, potentially allowing a future administration to push the limits of its surveillance powers. "It's not just what you think of this president but how these authorities have the potential to be abused in the wrong hands," says Kia Hamadanchy, a senior federal policy counsel at the ACLU. Congress rarely gets much done during an election year. But anxiety over government surveillance exists on both ends of the political spectrum, raising the possibility that overhauling FISA might be one of their accomplishments. Whether “you’re worried they are buying your location data because you are going to gun shops or abortion clinics, the same core principles should apply,” says Baumohl. Reining in how the federal government can use the data of Americans, and requiring the executive branch to be more transparent with Congress, could make it harder for Presidents to abuse their power. “Overbroad surveillance powers are a would-be autocrat’s best friend,” says Elizabeth Goitein, the senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. In countries led by dictators, Goitein says, “one of the ways that dictators got there and stayed there is through rampant surveillance.” ## Transcript Former President, Donald Trump has now been charged with crimes in four separate cases. He's the first former American president to be indicted in the country's history. Now, Trump's pleaded not guilty to all 91 charges against them. So, let's break down What charges he faces. And for, what crimes first, there's the hush money case in New York, Trump is charged with falsifying business records. In that case, the Manhattan district attorney album, Bragg alleges that Trump broke the law and trying to hide hush. Money payments to the adult film actress Stormy, Daniels to buy her silence leading up to the 2016 election. My attorney and I are committed to making sure that everyone finds out the truth and the facts of what happened and I give my word that we will not rest. Until that happens in the middle of the case is warmer fixer. Michael Cohen have a central issue and Brax case hangs on how the Trump organization and Trump recorded paying Michael Cohen hundred, thirty thousand dollars for a payment that Michael Cohen made Stormy Daniels. Michael Cohen says that payment was intended to buy Daniel Silence about an alleged affair with Trump in the weeks before the 2016 election. And Cohen says his reimbursements were falsely reported an internal Trump company reports as legal fees. When actually, the money was a campaign expense to keep the end of quiet is working for truck directed. Michael Cohen to make hush money payments and then they were falsely book on the company. Records phone is also said that Trump knew about the details. Of the payment and why it was being made Trump's legal team denies this and says, the Trump would have paid off Daniels regardless of whether he was running for president, that Manhattan trial is set for March of next year. Just as the presidential season is ramping up then there's the classified documents case. Trump faces criminal charges for allegedly taking home secret documents after he left the White House and repeating the refusing to return them and asked by federal officials in that case, then slap is 40, felony counts, including willful retention of National Defense information in violation of the Espionage Act and other charges like obstructing justice and making false statements, that case will be tried in May 2024. So maybe next year, in federal court, in Fort Pierce Florida, another court date in the middle of Trumps busy campaign season. Also faces federal charges for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Jack's Department, special counsel. Jacksmith allege. The Trump knew he was lying. When he was spreading lies about the election fraud and that trouble part of a broader effort to create Slade to fake electors and interfere with the process of certifying, the election results in Congress. In that case, among the four charges, Trump spaces are conspiracy to defraud the United States conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against citizens. Right to vote in the election of a case is set to be tried in federal court in DC. In March the same month is supposed to go to trial for the hush money payments in New York. That's just going to be really busy for Trump in court and on the campaign Trail, then there's the Georgia election case. Trump's been charged by Fulton County district attorney Bonnie Willis for participating in the broad effort to overturn, binds Electoral College, win in that state. Part of the illegal effort to overturn the results of Georgia's, 2020 presidential election Trump faces, 13 counts. In the case, including violating State, racketeering laws, soliciting a public official to violated those both of office, conspiring to commit forgery, in the first degree, conspiring to file, false documents and making false statements. Willis also charged 18, other defendants along with Trump including White House, former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows and legal advisor, Sidney, Powell, and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. This indictment is a travesty, it's an attack on, not just me, not just President Trump, not just the people in this indictment, some of whom I don't even know. What is an attack on the American people? In the Georgia case? Trump is accused of being the head of a criminal, Enterprise to overturn, the 2020 election, refusing to accept his loss and making unfounded assertions of widespread election fraud in Georgia. The indictment also alleges that Trump pressure, the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and other top state officials to find a way to reverse his loss and is north of the famous recorded phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad raffensperger in the recording from January 2nd 2021 Trump is heard asking the state's top election official. Tri-quilt find 11780 boats. One more than the number. He lost by and then decide to swing state. Trump has described that phone, call is perfect and denied, he did anything wrong. That trial will be held in Atlanta. One thing is for certain Trump's going to be spending a lot of days in court next year at a time, when he had planned to be on the campaign Trail, trying to win another four years in the White House. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/"},"headline":"Fears of a Trump Win Add Urgency to Effort to Tighten Surveillance Laws","datePublished":"2023-12-14T17:45:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:48.592Z","description":"Congress may soon overhaul a warrantless spying program known as FISA.","url":"https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/","keywords":["Donald Trump","uspoliticspolicy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0576ce5cd58ca9a/698a43379d83e8295cb97f9d/GettyImages-1853584419.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Nik Popli","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/nik-popli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf0576ce5cd58ca9a/698a43379d83e8295cb97f9d/GettyImages-1853584419.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former President Trump Holds Rally In Coralville, Iowa","caption":"Former President Trump Holds Rally In Coralville, Iowa","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/","name":"Fears of a Trump Win Add Urgency to Effort to Tighten Surveillance Laws"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Breaking Down Trump's Four Indictments","description":"TIME Senior Correspondent Brian Bennett explains all four of former President Donald Trump's criminal indictments.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/nDcHXqw3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-09-14T16:39:47.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nDcHXqw3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/","duration":"PT5M40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6511716/trump-ndaa-fisa-surveillance/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```