By Nolan D. McCaskill, Richard Cowan and Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) – A showdown over U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick of loyalist Bill Pulte as acting U.S. spy chief sharpened on Friday, as concerns over his fitness for the post held up renewal of a foreign surveillance law in the Senate.
By a vote of 47-52, the Senate refused to begin debate on a law that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor emails and other communications of foreigners located outside the United States without individual judicial warrants.
Seven Republicans joined all but one of the Senate’s Democrats to vote against opening deliberations on renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it expires on June 12.
Democrats had warned that they would not provide the votes to reauthorize the provision unless Trump reversed his choice of Pulte, a loyalist with no national security background, to replace Tulsi Gabbard as acting director of national intelligence when she leaves on June 30.
Some Republican opponents have sought greater protections for Americans’ information inadvertently collected when foreigners’ communications are monitored without warrants, while others have long voiced concerns about surveillance programs in general.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Trump administration will have to consider whether Pulte’s appointment is an impediment to reauthorizing the warrantless surveillance authority.
While the timing of Pulte’s appointment “arguably wasn’t the best,” Thune said, “I still don’t think it ought to derail something that’s this important.”
The White House said the surveillance law should not be delayed.
“Holding FISA hostage puts America’s national security at risk and it is shameful that some Democrats are threatening to put partisan politics ahead of the safety of the American people,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said.
As the head of a low-profile mortgage regulator, Pulte accessed confidential data to push for mortgage fraud probes against several of the president’s perceived foes. No criminal charges have been brought against any of them.
Democrats have raised concerns that Pulte would misuse his authority as the nation’s top spy to target people who Trump believes have persecuted him.
Some lawmakers also worry that Pulte could continue Gabbard’s involvement in efforts to prove Trump’s debunked claim that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud.
Trump has said he does not intend to nominate Pulte to fill the position permanently, though he will be able to remain in the post through the November midterm elections, when control of Congress is at stake.
Comments that Trump made to the Wall Street Journal on Friday could harden Democratic opposition to Pulte.
He said that he wants Pulte to release classified documents related to issues such as the 2020 election.
Pulte’s interim status would leave him “less shackled,” Trump said. “It sort of gives you more power, you know, for a limited period of time.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Michael Learmonth, Chizu Nomiyama and Cynthia Osterman)
