US Government is hiding a secret court ruling about how it spies on Americans

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Two Democratic senators who have long overseen US intelligence say the Trump administration is illegally withholding a secret court’s findings from Congress until lawmakers renew a program that lets federal agents read Americans’ communications without a warrant.

两位长期监督美国情报工作的民主党参议员表示，特朗普政府正在非法向国会隐瞒一份秘密法院的裁决，意图以此迫使立法者续签一项允许联邦特工在没有搜查令的情况下阅读美国人通信内容的计划。

Seven months ago, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court objected to search filters that let intelligence analysts pull Americans’ messages from intercepted data without the approvals, written justifications, or records the law requires. The court approved another year of surveillance anyway. The ruling has never been made public, and Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Adam Schiff of California say the administration’s own deadline for releasing it passed in September.

七个月前，外国情报监视法院对搜索过滤器提出了异议，这些过滤器允许情报分析人员在没有法律要求的批准、书面理由或记录的情况下，从截获的数据中提取美国人的信息。尽管如此，法院还是批准了为期一年的监视活动。该裁决至今未公开，来自俄勒冈州的参议员罗恩·怀登（Ron Wyden）和加利福尼亚州的亚当·希夫（Adam Schiff）表示，政府自行设定的发布截止日期已于九月过期。

The program, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), lapsed in June after Congress failed to renew it, though collection continues under the court’s March approval. The administration’s own public documentation says rulings like this one are reviewed for public release “within 180 days of issuance.” That window closed September 13, even as intelligence officials press lawmakers to reauthorize the program by the end of the year.

该计划即《外国情报监视法》（FISA）第702条，在国会未能续签后于六月失效，尽管根据法院三月份的批准，数据收集工作仍在继续。政府自己的公开文件称，此类裁决会在“发布后180天内”进行公开审查。这一窗口期已于9月13日关闭，而情报官员仍在敦促立法者在年底前重新授权该计划。

Wyden, the longest-serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Schiff, the former chair of its House counterpart, say the administration owes Congress an explanation for the delay, and the names of the officials responsible, by November 6.

参议院情报委员会任职时间最长的成员怀登，以及众议院情报委员会前主席希夫表示，政府必须在11月6日前向国会解释延误原因，并提供相关负责官员的名单。

“If this administration won’t follow this simple statutory directive,” the senators told Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Blanche in a demand letter obtained exclusively by WIRED, “it is unclear why Congress or the American people should trust this administration to follow any of the other legal limits to Section 702.”

“如果本届政府连这一简单的法定指令都不遵守，”参议员们在《连线》（WIRED）独家获得的一封要求信中对国家情报总监杰伊·克莱顿（Jay Clayton）和司法部长托德·布兰奇（Todd Blanche）表示，“那么国会或美国人民为何还要相信该政府会遵守第702条的其他任何法律限制，这令人怀疑。”

Outside Congress, Demand Progress and 22 other civil liberties and government accountability groups on Monday urged congressional leaders to refuse to reauthorize Section 702 “while the administration actively withholds legally mandated information about how the surveillance program operates.” Signatories range from the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative-backed Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability.

在国会之外，“需求进步”（Demand Progress）组织及其他22个公民自由和政府问责团体周一敦促国会领导人拒绝重新授权第702条，理由是“政府正在积极隐瞒有关监视计划运作方式的法定信息”。签署方包括美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）以及保守派支持的“隐私与监视问责项目”（Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability）。

The Trump administration has already been pressed, and has promised, to release the ruling. In April, senators Tom Cotton and Mark Warner, the Intelligence Committee’s Republican chair and Democratic vice chair, pressed the administration to release it within 15 days so it could inform the Senate’s debate. In July, asked in writing whether he would commit to declassifying it by the 180-day deadline, Blanche replied, “Yes.”

特朗普政府此前已受到压力并承诺发布该裁决。四月，情报委员会共和党主席汤姆·科顿（Tom Cotton）和民主党副主席马克·华纳（Mark Warner）曾敦促政府在15天内发布该裁决，以便为参议院的辩论提供参考。七月，当被书面询问是否承诺在180天期限内将其解密时，布兰奇回答说：“是的。”

Warner “has been clear that he supports transparency with regard to Section 702,” his communications director, Rachel Cohen, tells WIRED. Neither former director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard nor Bill Pulte, who briefly replaced her as acting director, “were responsive,” Cohen says, “but Senator Warner expects that DNI Clayton will declassify the opinion, consistent with the bipartisan letter and as required by law.”

华纳的通讯主管瑞秋·科恩（Rachel Cohen）告诉《连线》，华纳“明确表示支持第702条的透明度”。科恩表示，前国家情报总监图尔西·加巴德（Tulsi Gabbard）和短暂接替她担任代理总监的比尔·普尔特（Bill Pulte）“都没有回应”，“但华纳参议员预计，国家情报总监克莱顿会按照两党信函的要求以及法律规定，将该意见解密。”

Cotton’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the US Justice Department did not answer questions WIRED sent Friday about the delay.

科顿的办公室没有回应置评请求。白宫、国家情报总监办公室以及美国司法部均未回答《连线》周五就延误问题提出的疑问。

Clayton, who is legally responsible as director of national intelligence for declassifying the ruling, has made no such promise. Asked before his July confirmation whether he would ensure the opinion was public before Congress voted on reauthorization, he wrote only that the government was “working arduously to expeditiously declassify” it and had made the full opinion available to lawmakers.

作为国家情报总监，克莱顿在法律上有责任将该裁决解密，但他并未做出此类承诺。在七月确认任命前，当被问及是否会确保在国会投票表决续签前公开该意见时，他仅写道，政府正在“努力工作以尽快解密”，并已向立法者提供了完整的意见书。

Some of what the court found is already known. A FISA court opinion declassified last year described a similar FBI tool, a “participants filter” that let agents select people in contact with surveillance targets and read their messages. In February 2025, the Justice Department’s National Security Division told the court the tool had been running searches no one counted. The FBI shut it off the next month and switched it back on later that year, after the department approved a rebuilt version.

法院的部分调查结果已为人所知。去年解密的一份FISA法院意见描述了一种类似的联邦调查局（FBI）工具，即“参与者过滤器”，它允许特工选择与监视目标有联系的人并阅读其信息。2025年2月，司法部国家安全司告诉法院，该工具一直在进行无人统计的搜索。FBI在次月将其关闭，并在该部门批准了重建版本后于同年晚些时候重新开启。

This year’s ruling went beyond that. The court found that tools agencies use to narrow intercepted data to an American’s messages amount to searches of Americans, subject to the same limits, and ordered them rebuilt, The New York Times reported in April, citing unclassified administration talking points sent to lawmakers. Senator Alex Padilla said in a written question to Blanche that the Justice Department “is appealing portions” of the ruling “limiting the government’s use of certain filtering tools.”

今年的裁决更进一步。据《纽约时报》四月援引政府发给立法者的非机密谈话要点报道，法院认定，各机构用于将截获数据缩小到美国人信息范围的工具等同于对美国人的搜查，必须受到同样的限制，并下令对其进行重建。参议员亚历克斯·帕迪利亚（Alex Padilla）在给布兰奇的书面提问中表示，司法部“正在对裁决中限制政府使用某些过滤工具的部分提出上诉”。

While the ruling stayed secret, seven intelligence agency fact sheets from March 2026, one dated the day of the ruling, cited a 98.9 percent compliance rate for FBI searches of Americans and credited Section 702 with stopping a planned terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. None mentions the court’s findings. The figure appears nowhere in the Justice Department inspector general’s October 2025 review of those searches, which put the compliance rate at 98.6 percent and could not conclude that “the FBI’s querying compliance issues are entirely in the past.”

尽管裁决仍处于保密状态，但2026年3月的七份情报机构情况说明书（其中一份日期为裁决当天）援引了FBI对美国人搜索的98.9%的合规率，并将阻止维也纳泰勒·斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）演唱会恐怖袭击计划的功劳归于第702条。这些文件均未提及法院的调查结果。这一数字在司法部监察长2025年10月对这些搜索的审查中并未出现，该审查将合规率定为98.6%，并无法得出“FBI的查询合规问题已完全成为过去”的结论。

According to the fact sheets, FBI auditors review every such search. FBI director Kash Patel closed the bureau’s Office of Internal Auditing last May and moved its auditors into another division. The bureau’s search counts before 2025 also omit queries run through the participants filter, searches the government’s own privacy watchdog says are “not possible to track.”

根据情况说明书，FBI审计员会审查每一次此类搜索。FBI局长卡什·帕特尔（Kash Patel）去年五月关闭了该局的内部审计办公室，并将审计员调往了另一个部门。该局2025年之前的搜索统计数据也忽略了通过参与者过滤器进行的查询，政府自己的隐私监督机构称这些搜索是“无法追踪的”。

Lawmakers who have read the ruling hint that it says more. Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, urged colleagues on the Senate floor in June to read it in a secure room. “I have seen it,” he said. Once they did, he told them, “your opinion of the role of FISA and the rights of Americans

阅读过该裁决的立法者暗示其中包含更多内容。参议院司法委员会最高民主党人迪克·德宾（Dick Durbin）六月在参议院会议厅敦促同事们在安全房间内阅读该文件。“我已经看过了，”他说。他告诉他们，一旦读过，“你们对FISA的作用以及美国人权利的看法……”