ACLU Coalition Letter to Senate and House Judiciary Committee Leadership
Regarding Proposed FBI Guidelines
We, the undersigned organizations who care deeply about both individual rights and effective intelligence-gathering, are gravely concerned about reported changes to federal guidelines that would lower the bar for the FBI’s law enforcement and intelligence investigations. We ask that you thoroughly question FBI Director Mueller this week about the extent of these changes and convene a hearing of civil liberties experts to discuss the implications of the guidelines once they become public and before they go into effect. It appears that fundamental changes will be made in the FBI and Department of Justice rules that govern criminal investigations and domestic intelligence gathering, and the implications of those changes require your dedicated oversight. We also ask that you prevent any funding from being used to implement these changes until the next Attorney General has a chance to review them.
We, the undersigned organizations who care deeply about both individual rights and effective intelligence-gathering, are gravely concerned about reported changes to federal guidelines that would lower the bar for the FBI’s law enforcement and intelligence investigations. We ask that you thoroughly question FBI Director Mueller this week about the extent of these changes and convene a hearing of civil liberties experts to discuss the implications of the guidelines once they become public and before they go into effect. It appears that fundamental changes will be made in the FBI and Department of Justice rules that govern criminal investigations and domestic intelligence gathering, and the implications of those changes require your dedicated oversight. We also ask that you prevent any funding from being used to implement these changes until the next Attorney General has a chance to review them.