The House Judiciary Committee will consider this week the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act of 2020, a bill that will repeal authority to access call detail records, declassify opinions of the FISA court, and improve the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. EPIC has joined 44 civil liberties organizations in support of similar legislation. But the bill does not address surveillance conducted under Section 702, concerning non-US persons. EPIC recently advised Congress to reform Section 702 and to end Section 215 surveillance of Americans.
According to the New York Times, U.S. intelligence agencies have briefed Congress about ongoing efforts by Russia to interfere in the 2020 Presidential election. Following the briefing, the President replaced the acting Director of National Intelligence with Richard Grenell, a person with no background in intelligence or the management of federal agencies. The Senate Intelligence Committee, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller previously confirmed Russian interference in the 2016 election. However, the full extent of Russian interference in 2016 has not yet been revealed. EPIC is seeking the disclosure of the complete and unredacted Mueller Report in the FOIA lawsuit EPIC v. DOJ. EPIC's case could provide further information about the scope and techniques of Russian election interference. A ruling is expected soon.
In response to a public records request, EPIC received documents from the Mississippi Department of Corrections detailing their use of risk assessment tools. The results show that the Department uses risk assessments from pre-trial through parole. The document released to EPIC also show efforts to comply with the validation requirements of state law passed in 2019. The documents disclosed include also sample scoring sheets, scripts, four different trainings, and a manual on the risk assessment software. EPIC has obtained documents about pre-trial risk assessments from several states as well as a scoring system developed by the DHS to assign risk assessments to travelers, including US citizens.