15 U.S.C. § 1681u — Disclosures to FBI for counterintelligence purposes
submitted 30 years ago by Pub. L. 90-321 to r/title-15-COMMERCE-AND-TRADE · 1,830 words · no verdicts yet
This section lets the FBI obtain specified financial-institution and identifying information from consumer reporting agencies for authorized international-terrorism or clandestine-intelligence investigations. It sets certification, secrecy, review, payment, use, reporting, damages, and enforcement rules.
(a) When the FBI Director or an authorized senior designee gives a signed written request identifying a consumer* or account and certifying compliance, a reporting agency must provide the names and addresses of financial institutions where the consumer has or had an account, if in the agency’s files. The certification requires a written determination that the information is for an authorized investigation protecting against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activity, and a U.S.-person* investigation may not be based only on First Amendment-protected activity. (b) On the same kind of certified request, the agency must provide the consumer’s name, address, former addresses, places of employment, and former places of employment. (c) On a written request from the Director or authorized designee, a court may issue an ex parte order requiring a report, after an in-camera showing of the same investigation basis. The order must identify the consumer or account and may not reveal that it concerns counterintelligence. (d) If the FBI gives the required certification and notice of judicial review, the agency and its personnel may not disclose or state* in a report that the FBI sought or obtained the information. The certification may state that disclosure could endanger national security, interfere with a criminal, counterterrorism, or counterintelligence investigation, interfere with diplomacy, or endanger someone’s life or safety. Disclosure is allowed to people needed to comply, an attorney for legal advice, or others permitted by the Director. Recipients are bound by the same secrecy rule, must be told about it, and certain disclosure recipients must be identified to the FBI on request. (e) Requests, orders, and secrecy requirements are reviewable under section 3511 of title 18, and requests and orders must tell recipients that review is available. (f) Subject to appropriations, the FBI must reimburse an agency for reasonably necessary, directly incurred searching, copying, and transporting costs. (g) The FBI may not share the information outside the FBI except as needed for another Federal agency’s foreign-counterintelligence investigation or, for a person subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, with appropriate military investigative authorities for a joint investigation. (h) This section does not bar FBI disclosures under subpoena or court order in proceedings enforcing this subchapter, and does not authorize withholding information from Congress. (i) Every six months the Attorney General must fully inform the listed House and Senate intelligence and banking committees about all requests; intelligence-committee submission dates follow section 3106 of title 50. (j) A violating United States agency or department owes the consumer $100, actual resulting damages, punitive damages if the violation was willful or intentional, and litigation costs and reasonable attorney fees for a successful action. (k) If a court finds a violation and raises questions about an officer’s or employee’s willful or intentional conduct, the agency or department must promptly begin a disciplinary proceeding. (l) A reporting agency and its agent or employee is not liable for a disclosure made in good-faith reliance on an FBI certification under this section. (m) The remedies and sanctions in this section are the only judicial remedies and sanctions for violating it. (n) Injunctive relief is available to require compliance, with costs and reasonable attorney fees recoverable in a successful action.
Notwithstanding section 1681b of this title or any other provision of this subchapter, a consumer reporting agency* shall furnish to the Federal Bureau of Investigation the names and addresses of all financial institutions (as that term is defined in section 3401 of title 12) at which a consumer* maintains or has maintained an account, to the extent that information is in the files of the agency, when presented with a written request for that information that includes a term that specifically identifies a consumer or account to be used as the basis for the production of that information, signed by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the Director’s designee in a position not lower than Deputy Assistant Director at Bureau headquarters or a Special Agent in Charge of a Bureau field office designated by the Director, which certifies compliance with this section. The Director or the Director’s designee may make such a certification only if the Director or the Director’s designee has determined in writing, that such information is sought for the conduct of an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of a United States person* is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Notwithstanding the provisions of section 1681b of this title or any other provision of this subchapter, a consumer reporting agency shall furnish identifying information respecting a consumer, limited to name, address, former addresses, places of employment, or former places of employment, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation when presented with a written request that includes a term that specifically identifies a consumer or account to be used as the basis for the production of that information, signed by the Director or the Director’s designee in a position not lower than Deputy Assistant Director at Bureau headquarters or a Special Agent in Charge of a Bureau field office designated by the Director, which certifies compliance with this subsection. The Director or the Director’s designee may make such a certification only if the Director or the Director’s designee has determined in writing that such information is sought for the conduct of an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Notwithstanding section 1681b of this title or any other provision of this subchapter, if requested in writing by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or a designee of the Director in a position not lower than Deputy Assistant Director at Bureau headquarters or a Special Agent in Charge in a Bureau field office designated by the Director, a court may issue an order ex parte, which shall include a term that specifically identifies a consumer or account to be used as the basis for the production of the information, directing a consumer reporting agency to furnish a consumer report* to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, upon a showing in camera that the consumer report is sought for the conduct of an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The terms of an order issued under this subsection shall not disclose that the order is issued for purposes of a counterintelligence investigation.
If a certification is issued under subparagraph (B) and notice of the right to judicial review under subsection (e) is provided, no consumer reporting agency that receives a request under subsection (a) or (b) or an order under subsection (c), or officer, employee, or agent thereof, shall disclose or specify in any consumer report, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought or obtained access to information or records under subsection (a), (b), or (c).
The requirements of subparagraph (A) shall apply if the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or a designee of the Director whose rank shall be no lower than Deputy Assistant Director at Bureau headquarters or a Special Agent in Charge of a Bureau field office, certifies that the absence of a prohibition of disclosure under this subsection may result in—
a danger to the national security of the United States;
interference with a criminal, counterterrorism, or counterintelligence investigation;
interference with diplomatic relations; or
danger to the life or physical safety of any person.
A consumer reporting agency that receives a request under subsection (a) or (b) or an order under subsection (c), or officer, employee, or agent thereof, may disclose information otherwise subject to any applicable nondisclosure requirement to—
those persons to whom disclosure is necessary in order to comply with the request;
an attorney in order to obtain legal advice or assistance regarding the request; or
other persons as permitted by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the designee of the Director.
A person to whom disclosure is made under subparagraph (A) shall be subject to the nondisclosure requirements applicable to a person to whom a request under subsection (a) or (b) or an order under subsection (c) is issued in the same manner as the person to whom the request is issued.
Any recipient that discloses to a person described in subparagraph (A) information otherwise subject to a nondisclosure requirement shall inform the person of the applicable nondisclosure requirement.
At the request of the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the designee of the Director, any person making or intending to make a disclosure under clause (i) or (iii) of subparagraph (A) shall identify to the Director or such designee the person to whom such disclosure will be made or to whom such disclosure was made prior to the request.
A request under subsection (a) or (b) or an order under subsection (c) or a non-disclosure requirement imposed in connection with such request under subsection (d) shall be subject to judicial review under section 3511 of title 18.
A request under subsection (a) or (b) or an order under subsection (c) shall include notice of the availability of judicial review described in paragraph (1).
The Federal Bureau of Investigation shall, subject to the availability of appropriations, pay to the consumer reporting agency assembling or providing report or information in accordance with procedures established under this section a fee for reimbursement for such costs as are reasonably necessary and which have been directly incurred in searching, reproducing, or transporting books, papers, records, or other data required or requested to be produced under this section.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation may not disseminate information obtained pursuant to this section outside of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, except to other Federal agencies as may be necessary for the approval or conduct of a foreign counterintelligence investigation, or, where the information concerns a person subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to appropriate investigative authorities within the military department concerned as may be necessary for the conduct of a joint foreign counterintelligence investigation.
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit information from being furnished by the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to a subpoena or court order, in connection with a judicial or administrative proceeding to enforce the provisions of this subchapter. Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize or permit the withholding of information from the Congress.
On a semiannual basis, the Attorney General shall fully inform the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs of the House of Representatives, and the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate concerning all requests made pursuant to subsections (a), (b), and (c).
In the case of the semiannual reports required to be submitted under paragraph (1) to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate, the submittal dates for such reports shall be as provided in section 3106 of title 50.
Any agency or department of the United States obtaining or disclosing any consumer reports, records, or information contained therein in violation of this section is liable to the consumer to whom such consumer reports, records, or information relate in an amount equal to the sum of—
$100, without regard to the volume of consumer reports, records, or information involved;
any actual damages sustained by the consumer as a result of the disclosure;
if the violation is found to have been willful or intentional, such punitive damages as a court may allow; and
in the case of any successful action to enforce liability under this subsection, the costs of the action, together with reasonable attorney fees, as determined by the court.
If a court determines that any agency or department of the United States has violated any provision of this section and the court finds that the circumstances surrounding the violation raise questions of whether or not an officer or employee of the agency or department acted willfully or intentionally with respect to the violation, the agency or department shall promptly initiate a proceeding to determine whether or not disciplinary action is warranted against the officer or employee who was responsible for the violation.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, any consumer reporting agency or agent or employee thereof making disclosure of consumer reports or identifying information pursuant to this subsection in good-faith reliance upon a certification of the Federal Bureau of Investigation pursuant to provisions of this section shall not be liable to any person for such disclosure under this subchapter, the constitution of any State*, or any law or regulation of any State or any political subdivision of any State.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, the remedies and sanctions set forth in this section shall be the only judicial remedies and sanctions for violation of this section.
In addition to any other remedy contained in this section, injunctive relief shall be available to require compliance with the procedures of this section. In the event of any successful action under this subsection, costs together with reasonable attorney fees, as determined by the court, may be recovered.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 90–321, title VI, § 626, formerly § 624, as added Pub. L. 104–93, title VI, § 601(a), Jan. 6, 1996, 109 Stat. 974; renumbered § 625 and amended Pub. L. 107–56, title III, § 358(g)(1)(A), title V, § 505(c), Oct. 26, 2001, 115 Stat. 327, 366; Pub. L. 107–306, title VIII, § 811(b)(8)(B), Nov. 27, 2002, 116 Stat. 2426; renumbered § 626, Pub. L. 108–159, title II, § 214(a)(1), Dec. 4, 2003, 117 Stat. 1980; Pub. L. 109–177, title I, § 116(b), Mar. 9, 2006, 120 Stat. 214; Pub. L. 109–178, § 4(c)(1), Mar. 9, 2006, 120 Stat. 280; Pub. L. 114–23, title V, §§ 501(c), 502(c), 503(c), June 2, 2015, 129 Stat. 282, 285, 290.)
- 1996Enacted · Pub. L. 90-321 · 109 Stat. 974
- 2001Amended · Pub. L. 107-56 · 115 Stat. 327, 366
- 2002Amended · Pub. L. 107-306 · 116 Stat. 2426
- 2003Amended · Pub. L. 108-159 · 117 Stat. 1980
- 2006Amended · Pub. L. 109-177 · 120 Stat. 214
- 2006Amended · Pub. L. 109-178 · 120 Stat. 280
- 2015Amended · Pub. L. 114-23 · 129 Stat. 282, 285, 290
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 90-321 on 1996-01-06.
all 0 arguments · sorted by: best
no arguments yet — make the first case