[prosody]

Would you object if the FBI deputy director encouraged FBI agents to lawfully use their service firearms in the field to demonstrate their use to the FBI? There are real harms involved with increasing surveillance of the public and reducing judicial oversight. Placing the use of warrantless wiretapping as an end in itself rather than a possible means whose use needs to be carefully weighed necessarily means that the weighing will be less careful.

[jrockway]

Ultimately Congress should have written the law more carefully. It's their job to balance the various concerns of the government; effectiveness of their law enforcement vs. civil liberties. The FBI's job is only to investigate to the maximum extent of the law, and the email was just reminding people of that.

[Retric]

> investigate to the maximum extent of the law

Every branch of the government has a duty to uphold the constitution including its protections. Further the constitution is the law suggesting it’s only their responsibility to uphold some laws is the root of a great number of issues.

[dylan604]

> Ultimately Congress should have written the law more carefully.

That's not how the clandestine agencies like Congress to write laws though. They love to live in the spaces and gray areas created by vaguely written laws.

[foooorsyth]

> Ultimately Congress should have written the law more carefully

Insane framing of “we know the spirit of the law but we are going to do everything we can to skirt it”.

>The FBI’s job is only to investigate to the maximum extent of the law

Wrong, according to the FBI itself:

“The mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.”

https://www.fbi.gov/about/faqs/what-is-the-mission-of-the-fb...

Pray tell, how does warrantless spying on citizens help to uphold the 4th amendment?

[int_19h]

Whenever these laws are debated and people point out various ways in which they could be abused, Congress says that those are obviously far-fetched and the powers that are being given will be used in reasonable ways.

This email just goes to show what this actually means in practice.