What Gabbard Was Pushing in Her Final Days

Gabbard resigned as DNI. In her final days in office, her team was pressing to declassify a FISA Court opinion issued in March 2025 that documents systemic, ongoing violations of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) — the surveillance reform law Congress passed as the condition for reauthorizing Section 702 of FISA.

This isn't a declassification effort about old problems. It's about right now.

The Bipartisan Ask That Started This

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) jointly wrote to Gabbard and the Justice Department requesting declassification of the FISA Court opinion, according to Breitbart News.

Cotton expressed confidence in the timeline. Wyden made his position clear: no reauthorization of Section 702 without public debate first.

Section 702 expires June 12. Congress is scrambling for consensus and getting nowhere fast.

What the Hidden Court Opinion Reportedly Shows

The Brennan Center for Justice laid out the core problem.

In August 2024, the Justice Department discovered the FBI had been using a "filtering tool" that let agents query Section 702 data — data collected on foreign targets — without triggering the required logging, tracking, or supervisory approval. U.S. persons were getting swept up. Nobody was counting it. Nobody was approving it.

DOJ told the FISA Court that specific tool was shut down in early 2025.

The March 2025 FISA Court opinion reportedly reveals the FBI immediately started using a different, similar tool to do the same thing — and this time, reportedly with DOJ's blessing. According to the Brennan Center, the NSA and CIA are running comparable workarounds.

The reported U.S.-person query numbers from the FBI, NSA, and CIA for 2025 are all incomplete, per the Brennan Center. Abuses happening through these tools are likely going undetected and unreported.

Congress passed reform. Agencies promised compliance. Then they built new workarounds. The FISA Court noticed. And that court opinion has been sitting classified.

Why This Matters Beyond Gabbard's Resignation

Most coverage of Gabbard's departure focused entirely on her husband's cancer diagnosis and her exit. That's a human story and it matters.

But it's buried a significant development: Gabbard spent her final days in office trying to get a document declassified that could undermine the intelligence community's claim that it has reformed its surveillance practices. An ODNI spokesperson confirmed the office is reviewing the opinion and aims to move "expeditiously," though the statute allows 180 days for such reviews, according to reporting cited by Breitbart.

The real question: who takes this over now?

Gabbard is gone. The declassification process doesn't automatically continue just because she started it. Whoever fills the DNI role — or whoever is acting in it — inherits this fight. Or buries it.

What the Press Is Getting Wrong

The New York Times and Washington Post have both reported on the existence of the March FISA Court opinion and its contents. Credit where it's due — they surfaced the story.

But neither publication has aggressively connected Gabbard's active declassification push to the June 12 reauthorization deadline bearing down on Congress. That deadline is NOT background context. It's critical.

If Congress reauthorizes Section 702 before this opinion is public, lawmakers will be voting without full information. The surveillance apparatus gets another extension. The documented workarounds stay buried. And the reform law Congress already passed becomes meaningless.

Right-leaning outlets have framed this as Gabbard's anti-deep-state legacy play. That framing captures part of the story, but understates the bipartisan nature of the concern. Ron Wyden has been flagging 702 abuses for years. This isn't a partisan issue — it's a Fourth Amendment issue.

What the Law Actually Says

Section 702 of FISA is surveillance authority aimed at foreign adversaries. The problem: when you're collecting foreign communications, you inevitably scoop up the communications of Americans who talk to those foreigners — and that data sits in government databases that can be searched.

RISAA was supposed to require that those searches of American communications be counted, approved, and audited. The March 2025 FISA Court opinion reportedly says multiple agencies found ways around every single one of those requirements.

This isn't a technicality. The Fourth Amendment prohibits warrantless searches. The whole argument for Section 702 has always been that the targeting is foreign and the incidental American collection is tightly controlled. If the controls are fake, the constitutional justification collapses.

What Happens Next

Congress has until June 12 to reauthorize, reform, or let Section 702 expire.

The FISA Court opinion is sitting classified. With documented evidence — according to the Brennan Center — that the FBI, NSA, and CIA are running surveillance workarounds right now.

Gabbard tried to get it out. She's gone now.

If this opinion stays buried past June 12, every member of Congress who votes for reauthorization without reading it owns what comes next. And so does whoever is running DNI when that vote happens.

Regular Americans have no idea their communications may be caught in a surveillance net that the government itself admitted — to a federal court — it isn't properly tracking.