A Muslim-surveillance program, similar to the one launched in New York City following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, could be an aggressive tool in investigating and stopping Islamic terrorism, Rep. Pete King told President-elect Donald Trump during a meeting at Trump Tower Thursday.
"The main issues I discussed were what we have to do to have the Justice Department and the FBI be more leaning-forward when it comes to investigating Islamic terrorism," the New York Republican told reporters gathered after the meeting, reports Newsday. "We can't worry about political correctness."
The surveillance, King continued, was "very effective for stopping terrorism," and had been "very aggressive and forward-leaning."
However, setting up a similar surveillance program could face some legal challenges. Earlier this year, a report from the inspector general for the New York Police Department found that intelligence-gathering rules were broken during the program, and several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have filed a legal challenge against the practice.
In October, a federal judge rejected a settlement in the case of a lawsuit stemming from the program, commenting the deal didn't provide enough oversight of the NYPD and its "systemic inclination" to ignore rules on free religion and speech, The New York Times reports.
In addition, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, in 2015, commented the surveillance program didn't produce "one single piece of actionable intelligence," reports Talking Points Memo.
The sit-down with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence also included King's daughter, Hempstead Town Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney, and Suffolk County Republican Chairman John Jay LaValle. Both King and LaValle said they did not discuss positions in the Trump administration during the meeting.
Trump was also interested in talking about Long Island politics, King said, and he asked him about "every block and every corner of my district and how they voted, who voted for him and who didn't, how I did and how he did."
King and LaValle both served as early campaign surrogates for Trump, including speaking for him in national television interviews and at fundraisers, reports Newsday.
In a press release, King said he and Trump also discussed "the recent distorted media reports regarding the disgraceful leaks about alleged Russia hacking.
According to a transition team pool report, King referenced news stories that quoted anonymous sources while reporting that Russia had hacked into email accounts of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee and to benefit Trump, reports Talking Points Memo.
"I've been in briefing after briefing, and even in public statements the Director of National Intelligence, the director of the FBI have all said they don't know what the motive is," the pool report stated. "If there is a motive it was to disrupt the election, not to prefer one candidate over the other. To suddenly have it appear in the Washington Post and the New York Times that the intelligence community has concluded this. Who? Who in the CIA? Is is John Brennan? Is it some rogue person behind a desk somewhere? People in the intelligence community are using this against the president-elect of the United States and that is disgraceful."
King said he's learned in briefings that "the media and certain Democrats in Congress and certain element of the intelligence community are in effect doing what Putin wanted them to do, and that's to put a doubt and a cloud over the President-elect."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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