Trump tweet throws House surveillance debate into chaos

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President Donald Trump threw efforts to renew a controversial Patriot Act provision into turmoil on Tuesday evening with a tweet calling on Republican members of the House to reject spying legislation that is due for a vote this week. It's the latest setback for a bill that has been embroiled in controversy for months.

The provision, known as Section 215, was first passed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. It gives the federal government broad powers to obtain "any tangible thing," including "books, records, papers, documents, and other items," without a warrant.

This power isn't supposed to be used for ordinary criminal cases-only for foreign intelligence operations. But it has been subject to abuse in the past. Most notoriously, Section 215 was used to collect records of every phone call made in America for several years. The NSA ultimately terminated the program under sustained pressure from civil liberties groups.

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