Senators allege CIA collected data on Americans in warrantless searches

Two Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have raised concerns about how the CIA has handled Americans' information collected incidentally as part of the agency's foreign surveillance programs, in what the lawmakers say amounts to "serious problems associated with warrantless backdoor searches of Americans."

The CIA has said that the nature of the surveillance in question -- including what kind of data has been collected and how many Americans' records are maintained as part of the agency's activities -- must remain classified.

In a letter to CIA Director Bill Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines dated April 13, 2021, and declassified on Thursday, Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico allege that a watchdog report given to the committee shows that the CIA has "secretly conducted its own bulk program ... entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection."