Democrat senator demands FBI explain how often it hacks Americans

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is demanding for the FBI to answer questions about its policy about hacking Americans and its use of a controversial surveillance system. 

"The American people have a right to know the scale of the FBI’s hacking activities and the rules that govern the use of this controversial surveillance technique," Wyden said in a letter Tuesday to FBI Director Chris Wray.

The FBI obtained Pegasus spyware from the Israeli company NSO Group, The New York Times reported earlier this year. The agency said without giving a reason that it declined to deploy NSO's hacking tool that can be used to completely control a person's phone without their knowledge. 

Wyden asked the FBI how many operations it has carried out using hacking and how many were authorized by the courts.

He also demanded to know whether any legal barriers would prevent the agency from using NSO or similar tools in the future.

The Oregon Democrat's letter comes as public figures such as Elon Musk and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) are calling for a Church-style committee to probe allegations of corruption in the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community.