Lindsey Graham Is Outraged About Federal Surveillance Powers That Lindsey Graham Helped Create and Expand

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) has finally discovered his inner civil libertarian—now that it’s his phone calls being subjected to secret government surveillance.

Graham is incensed that his phone records were subpoenaed by federal prosecutors—without his knowledge—as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 riot. He’s accused the FBI of spying on him, and this week wrote a letter demanding the suspension and impeachment of federal Judge James Boasberg, who approved that subpoena and related gag order. In an interview on Fox News, Graham threatened to sue someone (it’s unclear who, exactly) for “tens of millions of dollars” over all this.

This began last month, when FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that the phone records of eight Republican senators, including Graham’s, were subpoenaed as part of Smith’s investigation, dubbed “Arctic Frost.” The data collected was from January 4-7, 2021, and the subpoenas included gag orders that prohibited telecom companies from informing Graham and the others of the investigation. (For more on the scandal itself, check out this piece from Reason‘s J.D. Tuccille.)

Graham is, rightfully, bent out of shape over this violation of his civil liberties.

“They spied on my phone records as a senator and a private citizen,” Graham said on Fox News this week. “I’m sick of it.”

Yes, I’m sick of it too. But if Graham is looking for someone to blame for the broad, effectively limitless surveillance powers that federal law enforcement possesses, he might start by checking a mirror.

Graham has been a key player in the construction of America’s modern digital and telecom panopticon. As a member of the House, he voted for the Patriot Act in 2001. After Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) was scooping up Americans’ phone records, Graham said he was “glad the NSA is trying to find out what the terrorists are up to overseas and in our country.” (He later tried to place sanctions on any country aiding Snowden.) He voted to codify those surveillance powers into Section 702 in 2008 and has repeatedly backed its reauthorization. In 2017, he was one of several Republican senators to back a bill that would have made Section 702 permanent, which would have removed the periodic opportunities for Congress to review, reform, and (maybe someday) abolish the program. He’s tried to undermine encryption for online communication.

Of course, any converts to the cause of civil liberties are welcome—and perhaps Graham’s newfound distaste for surveillance overreach will actually bring about some reforms. After all, the very same senators who are so outraged about this violation of civil liberties also hold the power to reform federal surveillance laws to protect all Americans’ privacy.

In the meantime, however, Graham seems less upset about the existence of those federal surveillance powers and more upset about how they were used. The government can look at your phone records whenever it wants, but it’s a different story when we’re talking about his metadata.

In Graham’s world, the government should only be surveilling the bad guys—you know, like people who might be plotting to overthrow the government—and if you’re not doing anything wrong, hey, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

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