The Trump administration has asked the three Democrats serving on an independent oversight panel that probes the intelligence community’s infringements into civil liberties to step down, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The members on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board—Sharon Bradford Franklin, Edward Felten, and Travis LeBlanc—were asked Tuesday night to resign by Thursday or be terminated, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The New York Times first reported news of the request.
Trump has vowed to dismiss people he deems disloyal to his political agenda or who were associated with the Biden administration, arguing that that he and his allies have been unfairly targeted or censored by certain federal officials or agencies.
PLCOB members are granted six-year terms upon confirmation to the executive branch panel, although the law allows them to stay for up to a year after their terms expire. Two of the members, Felten and Franklin, had terms expiring next week. LeBlanc was set to remain on the board until 2028.
The five-seat board currently has just four members. Because a three-member quorum is required to conduct oversight business, the departures will prevent the board from acting until at least two new members are appointed.
The lone Republican on the board, Beth Williams, was not asked to leave, the person familiar said.
The move comes about a year before Congress is slated to debate reauthorizing a contested surveillance power that allows the intelligence community and law enforcement to collect communications of foreign targets abroad without a warrant. The ordinance—Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—permits analysts to collect foreign targets’ conversations with U.S. persons, which has raised concerns that the law provides an end-run around the Fourth Amendment. It was extended in a law signed by then-President Joe Biden in April.
Just Tuesday, a federal court in New York ruled that the FBI’s collections that used the spying power had violated the Fourth Amendment.
Privacy hawks seeking to reform the statute have often cited cases where the authority was found to have been abused by law enforcement. The PCLOB has played a major role in surfacing those abuses because its members are allowed to review classified data affiliated with the 702 collection process.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
“President Trump’s attempt to expel members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is a brazen effort to destroy an independent watchdog that has protected Americans and exposed surveillance abuse under Democratic and Republican administrations alike” said Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology.
“PCLOB was created specifically to provide oversight over the kinds of government actions where the need for secrecy makes people most vulnerable to abuses of power. This is an effort to shoot the watchdog,” Givens said. “That’s a very bad signal about what this president wants to do next.”
