Justice Dept.: FBI Misused Patriot Act (Lara Jakes Jordan)

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The FBI improperly and, in some cases illegally, used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.

By LARA JAKES JORDAN -- Associated Press

March 9, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- The FBI improperly and, in some cases illegally, used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.

And for three years the FBI has underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.

FBI agents sometimes demanded the data without proper authorization, according to the 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. At other times, the audit found, the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.

The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct.

Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concludes.