WASHINGTON – The number of targets of secretive surveillance in national security investigations fell sharply last year in part because of the coronavirus pandemic and continued scrutiny of the FBI's wiretapping authorities arising from the Russia investigation, according to a government report released Friday.
The drop in eavesdropping targets under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which empowers the FBI to monitor the communications inside the United States of people suspected of being agents of a foreign power, followed a decline the year before after several years of substantially larger numbers.
U.S. officials say the statistics are known to fluctuate from year to year because of various factors, but that in 2020, the