FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 23-25
August 19, 2025
ODNI Releases February 2025 FISC Certification D Opinion and April 2025 FISC Amended Certification D Opinion and Agency Procedures
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), in consultation with the Department of Justice (DOJ), is publicly releasing, in redacted form, two Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinions and associated targeting, minimization, and querying procedures related to a new certification permitted by recent Congressional legislation and issued under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The April 2025 FISC opinion approved the government’s use of this certification to counter the international production, distribution, or financing of illicit drugs. This work displays the U.S. Government’s commitment toward counternarcotics and counterterrorism while upholding civil liberty protections of U.S. citizens.
The government may submit certifications to the FISC that specify the categories of foreign intelligence information that the Intelligence Community (IC) is authorized to collect using FISA Section 702. On 20 April 2024, Congress through the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act amended FISA’s definition of foreign intelligence information to include information concerning the “international production, distribution, or financing of illicit synthetic drugs, opioids, cocaine, or other drugs driving overdose deaths, or precursors of any aforementioned”—see 50 U.S.C. § 1801(e)(1)(D). With any submitted Section 702 certification, the government also must submit targeting, minimization, and querying procedures, which ensure that FISA Section 702 is used only to target non-United States persons located outside the United States, for the purpose of acquiring foreign intelligence information; safeguard any U.S. person information incidentally acquired; and govern the querying of unminimized information that is lawfully collected, respectively.
Initially, in its February 2025 opinion, the FISC found that the certification and procedures generally met the requirements of FISA and the Fourth Amendment, but found that the government’s proposed minimization and querying procedures for the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) should incorporate the higher necessity standard in FISA’s definition of “foreign intelligence information” as it concerns U.S. persons. The Court therefore held on these narrow grounds that the NSA and CIA minimization and querying procedures did not satisfy the requirements of the Fourth Amendment and FISA statute.
The government amended those procedures to address the Court’s comments and resubmitted the certification for judicial review. The FISC then approved the government’s proposed Section 702 certification for counternarcotics.
As detailed in the opinions and procedures, the FISC’s approval of the counternarcotics certification permits only the NSA and CIA to collect, retain, query, and disseminate foreign intelligence information related to this certification for operational or analytic purposes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is permitted, under this certification and accompanying procedures, to provide technical assistance to NSA and CIA in effectuating the counternarcotics certification; the FBI does not receive collection for operational or analytic use. Because the opinion contained a significant or novel construction of law, the DOJ produced a classified version of these opinions and procedures to Congress. See 50 U.S.C. 1871(c).
Consistent with Executive Order 13526, when developing the redacted copies of the opinions and procedures, ODNI consulted with DOJ, NSA, CIA, and FBI to identify what information must remain redacted because release could reasonably be expected to result in damage to national security and to identify what, if any, information should be submitted for public interest declassification. This review also was conducted to ensure that information is not redacted to conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error or to prevent embarrassment to a person, organization or agency.
The DNI previously declassified the fact that the IC obtained approval from the FISC for a counternarcotics certification under Section 702—see page 22 of the DNI’s 2025 Annual Statistical Transparency Report for Calendar Year 2024. As part of the interagency review of these opinions and accompanying procedures, additional facts have been declassified in the interest of public transparency.
Some of the redacted information in the documents has been redacted because releasing it would reveal sources and methods, which could cause exceptionally grave or serious damage to national security. Revealing such information would provide means for adversaries to change their behaviors and avoid detection; many of the redactions relate to detailed factual descriptions of specific targets, techniques, and technology. While the specific sensitive facts must remain classified, the legal analysis leading to the Court’s finding is unclassified and being released.
These FISC opinions are being released pursuant to 50 U.S.C. § 1872. The minimization procedures are being released pursuant to 50 U.S.C. § 1881a(e). The release of the targeting and querying procedures is consistent with the IC’s commitment to the Principles of Intelligence Transparency. These documents, along with previous FISC opinions and additional public information on national security authorities, are available in full-text searchable format on www.intel.gov.
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