World Cup, America 250 face new risk with spy law lapse
A controversial spy powers law has become the latest political casualty of President Donald Trump’s second term, injecting uncertainty into US intelligence gathering in a summer dominated by the World Cup and high-profile events celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary. Republicans have painted a dire picture of the consequences of the lapse in the law, which expired on Friday, with Senator Mike Rounds warning that it “makes our country a lot less safe” at a critical time. The standoff over renewing the surveillance authority appeared set to drag on as Trump moved on Wednesday to delay Senate confirmation of his nominee to be national intelligence director, Jay Clayton. He also demanded this week that partisan immigration policies be attached to any extension of the law, complicating prospects for a bipartisan deal. Read more: Trump Says Nomination of US Intel Director Should Be Delayed Even with the lapse, though, surveillance activities can continue through next March, thanks to authorization from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The intelligence community can also continue to keep tabs on their targets, something that will help with security around events like the World Cup, for which agencies prepare months in advance. The specialized court can compel compliance, as it did in 2008 when Yahoo Inc. refused to cooperate during a brief lapse in the statutory authority. The US government won a court battle to force Yahoo into compliance. Whether this type of intelligence gathering continues will hinge on the response of telecommunications companies and online providers like AT&T, T-Mobile US, Verizon and Alphabet Inc. and whether they choose to continue to cooperate with the government to speed intelligence gathering. Losing their cooperation risks slowing intelligence gathering and creating information gaps. “We don’t know the answer to that,” said Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. “It is obviously a high-r