John Cornyn: “I appreciate the opportunity to engage my friend and colleague, the distinguished chairman of the Senate Judiciary…”

“I appreciate the opportunity to engage my friend and colleague, the distinguished chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a distinguished lawyer in his own right. This is his wheelhouse. I appreciate the question because I think it actually--maybe there is a nuance here that I misstated my position, because I am of the same mind the Senator is when it comes to an American citizen who is mentioned in a communication with the foreign actor, because this is designed to deal only with foreign actors. What I was referring to was incidental communication, when there was a communication between the foreign actor and the U.S. person, and we can call him a U.S. person because he can also be a legal permanent resident. Basically, what we are talking about are U.S. citizens. So that is incidental collection when there is that contact between a foreign target and the American citizen. That is considered to be incidental collection, and no court has said it violates the Fourth Amendment. But I agree with the Senator that if, in fact, there is a mention of an American citizen in that communication and the law enforcement Agencies want more information about that American citizen, they have to get a warrant. They have to go to court and establish probable cause in order to get that information because that is what the Fourth Amendment is designed to protect. I hope I have understood the Senator's position.”