The FBI acknowledged on Wednesday that while tracking terrorists and spies, it improperly accessed Americans' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said the breach occurred before the FBI enacted broad new reforms in March 2007 to prevent future lapses. The breaches were caused in part by banks, telecommunication companies and other private businesses giving the FBI more personal client information than was requested.
While testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Mueller discussed the FBI's use of national security letters in reference to an upcoming report on the topic by the Department of Justice's inspector general.
A 2007 audit by the inspector general found that the FBI demanded personal records without official authorization or collected more data than was allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. The audit also found that more than 4,600 national security letters weren't reported to Congress.
The new audit, which examines use of national security letters issued in 2006, "will identify issues similar to those in the report issued last March," Mueller told senators. The privacy abuse "predates the reforms we now have in place," he said.
"We are committed to ensuring that we not only get this right, but maintain the vital trust of the American people," Mueller said.
No additional details were provided.
As outlined in the USA Patriot Act, national security letters are administrative subpoenas used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. The letters allow the FBI to order telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses to hand over customers' or subscribers' records without a judge's approval.
The 2007 audit by Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine blamed agent error and shoddy recordkeeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct. Fine's latest report is expected to be released as early as next week.
Several Department of Justice and FBI officials familiar with the upcoming 2006 findings have said the new audit will show that national security letters were incorrectly used at a similar rate to that of the previous three years.
The number of national security letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed after the Patriot Act became law in 2001, according to the 2007 report.
Fine's annual review is required by Congress, over the objections of the Bush administration.
In 2005, for example, Fine's office found more than 1,000 violations within 19,000 FBI requests to obtain 47,000 records. Each letter issued may contain several requests.
In contrast to the strong concerns expressed by Congress and civil liberties groups after the 2007 inspector general's report was issued, Mueller's disclosure drew no criticism from senators during just more than two hours of testimony Wednesday.
Speaking before the FBI chief, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., urged Mueller to be more vigilant in correcting "widespread illegal and improper use of national security letters."
"Everybody wants to stop terrorists," he said. "But we also ... believe in our privacy rights, and we want those protected. There has to be a better chain of command for this. You cannot just have an FBI agent who decides he'd like to obtain Americans' records, bank records or anything else and do it just because they want to."
Following the 2007 audit, the Department of Justice enacted guidelines that reminded FBI agents to carefully follow the rules governing national security letters. The new rules tell agents to review all information before transferring it into FBI databases to make sure that only the requested information is used.
Fine's upcoming report also credits the FBI for putting additional checks in place to make sure privacy rights aren't violated, according to a Department of Justice official familiar with its findings.
Critics seized on Mueller's testimony as indication that a judge should sign off on national security letters before they are issued.
"The credibility factor shows there needs to be outside oversight," said former FBI agent Michael German, who now is a national security adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union.
German also cast doubt on the FBI's reforms.
"There were guidelines before, and there were laws before, and the FBI violated those laws," he said. "And the idea that new guidelines would make a difference, I think cuts against rationality."
