Trump allies defy Speaker Mike Johnson and TANK reauthorization of controversial spy tool as Republican chaos continues: Former president urged GOP to ‘kill’ critical bill to thwart terror plots because program ‘illegally spied’ on his 2016 campaign

A key vote to advance the reauthorization of a controversial spying tool failed on the House floor Wednesday after Donald Trump urged his allies to ‘kill’ it.

Nineteen far-right Republicans joined on the vote, dealing another blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, who had urged his conference to move the bill forward.

The so-called ‘compromise’ bill included new safeguards for FISA, which hardliners said did not go far enough.

‘KILL FISA IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPYED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!! DJT’ Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has been credited with helping intelligence officers prevent terrorist attacks on US soil, but has also been prone to misuse for spying on US citizens.

It was used to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 when he was suspected of communicating with the Russians.

It allows the US government to monitor foreign nationals with suspected terrorist connections who are not on US soil, even if the party on the other end of such communications is a US citizen in America.

Nineteen Republicans voted ‘no’ to the rule to advance the reauthorization of Section 702 in a major blow to Speaker Mike Johnson.

All Democrats voted ‘no’ on the rule and typically always do so, even if they support the bill.

The vote was 193-228.

It was the seventh rules vote to fail this Congress, the fourth under Speaker Mike Johnson. A rule had not failed in over 20 years before this Congress, as the majority party did not usually resort to such tactics to paralyze House business.

It was also the third attempt to renew and reform FISA that failed.

Johnson fired back at Trump’s message ahead of the vote: ‘Trump used the information from this program to kill terrorists.’

The speaker argued that the bill, as it stands now, ‘kills the abuses’ that occurred under FISA in the past.

He has warned that if the compromise bill fails, the Senate will “jam” the House with a clean reauthorization without oversight reforms before FISA’s April 19 expiration.

House Republicans will huddle behind closed doors to discuss the way forward on FISA at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Johnson could bring the FISA bill back under suspension — meaning he wouldn’t need all of his fellow Republicans to pass a rule, but he would need two-thirds of the House to pass a final bill.

This could further embolden Johnson’s opponents and push them into the arms of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to leave the threat.

If Greene called her motion to leave the floor, there would be a vote to remove Johnson from the speakership, which would require only a small handful of Republicans to sign if all Democrats again vote to start a Republican speaker.

A senior GOP aide told DailyMail.com there is a ‘strong’ likelihood the anti-FISA bill Republicans would embrace the motion to vacate (MTV) if Johnson put the bill back on the floor under suspension.

‘Bringing it under suspension is another slap in the face to members who are already thinking about MTV.’

Hardliners on the right and left have become strange bedfellows over allegations that FISA has trampled on Americans’ civil liberties.

They are advocating for an amendment that would require intelligence officers to obtain a warrant before intercepting communications from U.S. citizens talking to foreign nationals under suspicion.

That change pits the Judiciary Committee and its allies against the Intelligence Committee and national security hawks, who say the intelligence community should not get stuck trying to get warrants when potential terror plots involve communications with Americans.

If an intelligence officer invoked Section 702 to intercept communications from a suspected terrorist and they were talking to a US citizen in the States, they would only be able to see the terrorists’ half of the conversation without a warrant to look at US nationals.

Johnson said he would not whip members to vote one way or the other on the amendment demand, but privately told people he opposes it.

The House-led bill released last week would extend the program while also adding new changes intended to strengthen oversight and training and ensure the program’s transparency.

It will not include an amendment from Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, which prevents federal agencies from buying information about Americans from private data companies, rankles conservative hardliners, but leadership said it could get a stand-alone vote this week.

In March, a compromise bill crafted by negotiators on the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees was abruptly pulled from the House schedule over concerns from the Intel Committee over an amendment that would have forced law enforcement agencies to seek a warrant before obtaining communication involving a US citizen.

A May 2023 report described how the FBI used Section 702 to ‘inquire’ – or search for – names of people suspected of being on the Capitol grounds during the January 6, 2021 riot, Black Lives Matters protesters, victims of crime and their families and donors to a congressional campaign.

In total, the FBI abused Section 702 over 278,000 times – according to the document.

While many of Section 702’s uses remain classified, intelligence officials leaked late last year that they had used the controversial tool to prevent arms sales to Iran.

The CIA and other intelligence agencies had used information gathered by monitoring the electronic communications of foreign arms manufacturers and stopped several shipments of advanced weapons to Iran.