Newly released documents concerning the Department of Homeland Security's attempt to unmask an anonymous Twitter account reveals a seemingly unsupervised Customs and Border Protection employee improperly attempted to force Twitter to produce records on the user without a court order, The Intercept reported Monday.
The employee also completely disregarded whether the summons was legal.
The short-lived investigation last year into @ALT_USCIS, an anonymous account that says it is run by a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services worker, was criticized for infringement of First Amendment rights and potential abuses of power.
"These documents make clear that the CBP needs to focus on real security issues, rather than abusing its authority to discover the identity of a whistleblower," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The account was one of dozens that sprung up after President Donald Trump entered the White House, purporting to represent federal employees at various agencies who oppose the administration's policies.
The documents show the probe started in late February 2017, after @ALT_USCIS encouraged anyone with "personal dirt" on dishonest CBP and ICE agents to get in touch and offered payment and anonymity for tipsters.
The following month CBP agent Adam Hoffman sent a 1509 summons to Twitter, signed by supervising special agent, Stephen Caruso, ordering the company to turn over a wide range of information, including User names, account login, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and IP addresses.
However, the summons lacked any grounding in law, because such a summons pertains only to records about imported merchandise. @ALT_USCIS told The Intercept this illustrates "how casual [the government is] about civil liberties."
The day after Twitter filed a federal complaint, the government withdrew the summons and Twitter dropped its lawsuit.
A review by the Homeland Security Inspector General's office found that staff were confused about how to properly use the summons, with about 20 percent of such orders either in violation of either legal authority or DHS policy.
In response to the Inspector General's recommendation for a review of how agents have used the 1509 summons to obtain information and records, a CBP spokesperson told The Intercept the agency conducted "a comprehensive review of its use of the 1509 summons authority," resulting in new policies "designed to strengthen existing internal controls and approval protocols."
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