Wyden and Schiff say administration missed its own deadline to release secret FISA court ruling on Americans' communications

Two Democratic senators say the Trump administration is sitting on a secret court ruling about how intelligence analysts search Americans' communications, and that the administration's own release deadline has already passed.

Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Adam Schiff of California sent a demand letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Blanche, obtained exclusively by WIRED. They want a written explanation for the delay, plus the names of the officials responsible, by November 6.

What the ruling is

Seven months ago, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court objected to search filters used by intelligence analysts, WIRED reported. The filters let analysts pull Americans' messages out of intercepted data without the approvals, written justifications or records the law requires.

The court approved another year of surveillance anyway. The ruling has never been made public.

The program at issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It lets federal agents read Americans' communications without a warrant when those communications are swept up in surveillance aimed at foreigners overseas. Congress let the authority lapse in June. Collection continues under the court's March approval.

The missed deadline

The administration's own public documentation says rulings like this one are reviewed for public release "within 180 days of issuance." That window closed September 13.

The administration has been asked to release this ruling before. In April, Senators Tom Cotton and Mark Warner, the Republican chair and Democratic vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, asked for its release within 15 days so it could inform the Senate's debate over 702.

In July, Blanche was asked in writing whether he would commit to declassifying it by the 180-day deadline. His answer was one word: "Yes."

Warner "has been clear that he supports transparency with regard to Section 702," his communications director, Rachel Cohen, told WIRED. Cohen said neither former DNI Tulsi Gabbard nor Bill Pulte, who briefly served as acting director, "were responsive." She said Warner expects Clayton to declassify the opinion, "consistent with the bipartisan letter and as required by law."

What the senators allege

Wyden is the longest-serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Schiff is the former chair of its House counterpart. They say the administration is illegally withholding the court's findings from Congress until lawmakers renew the program. That is their allegation. The administration has not been shown to have confirmed a connection between the withholding and the reauthorization push.

"If this administration won't follow this simple statutory directive," the senators wrote, "it is unclear why Congress or the American people should trust this administration to follow any of the other legal limits to Section 702."

The push to renew

The other side of the clock is the reauthorization fight. Intelligence officials are pressing lawmakers to renew Section 702 by the end of the year. Their case rests on the program's role in collecting foreign intelligence, and they want a clean vote.

A coalition of 23 civil liberties and government accountability groups, led by Demand Progress, has urged congressional leaders to refuse reauthorization "while the administration actively withholds legally mandated information about how the surveillance program operates."

The signers do not line up on one side of the usual divide. They include the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative-backed Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability.

Why a sealed ruling matters here

The dispute is not about whether the government may spy on foreigners. It is about the rules protecting Americans whose messages get caught in that net.

The court has said, at least according to WIRED's reporting, that analysts were running searches without the approvals, written justifications and records the law requires. Lawmakers are being asked to renew the program without seeing the ruling that says so.

The administration made a written promise to a Senate committee, and a statutory review window has now closed. Wyden and Schiff are not the only ones asking. Cotton, a Republican and the committee chair, joined Warner in asking for release months ago.

Clayton and Blanche have until November 6 to answer the senators. Whether the ruling is released before Congress takes up renewal, and who made the call to hold it, are the questions still open.