FISA Judges Collyer and Boasberg Both Identified NSA Databases Used for Political Surveillanceโฆ
By maintaining the counterintelligence process for Mueller, the FBI was able to continue exploiting the NSA database as a FISA(702) tool for their investigation.ย The foreign actors played a key role in this process.ย So long as the Mueller investigation was targeting foreign actors they could collect downstream evidence on the โ702โ (American persons) returns.
In essence, the โsmall groupโ was stretching the NSA database rules to conduct electronic warrantless searches and massive electronic surveillance on targets direct (โto/fromโ) and indirect (downstream).