Senate Democrats are accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of sitting on a surveillance document they say exposes serious violations of Americans’ rights. The charge leads this week’s Tuesday Tech Drop, a roundup of major stories where technology and politics collide.

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., say the administration is withholding a report that “details serious abuses of Americans’ rights under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.” They argue the document should already be public after a FISA court opinion in March detailed abuses involving the program.

The senators sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and Attorney General Todd Blanche demanding its release. They said lawmakers need the information as they consider whether to extend the government’s FISA powers next year.

“The administration has now had over seven months to declassify and release this opinion. It is time to stop violating the law and finally release this opinion.”

“And if this administration won’t follow this simple statutory directive, it is unclear why Congress or the American people should trust this administration to follow any of the other legal limits to Section 702.”

The surveillance dispute lands against an already alarming backdrop. Since returning to office, Trump has expanded the federal government’s arsenal of surveillance tools while building what appears to be a sprawling operation capable of tracking Americans.

Democrats, with help from some Republicans, blocked a vote in June that would have extended the controversial FISA powers. Those authorities give the government broad latitude to collect data, including information belonging to Americans.

Elsewhere in the technology roundup, artificial intelligence bots are increasingly gaining unauthorized access to people’s bank accounts, according to Axios. The reporting focused on concerns among bank officials about protecting customer security as artificial intelligence tools become more capable.

Meta, meanwhile, was ordered by a judge to pay $25 billion after losing a lawsuit in New Mexico. The case alleged that Meta violated the state’s consumer protection laws and placed users at risk following the Cambridge Analytica scandal nearly a decade ago.

Meta has vowed to appeal the decision. The enormous judgment adds another legal battle to a week already crowded with unsettling questions about how powerful technology companies handle people’s information.

Artificial intelligence also surfaced in Mississippi politics after the state’s Republican attorney general issued legal threats. Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom then deleted an advertisement that used artificial intelligence tools to mock his Republican opponent, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

The roundup’s author wrote that Republicans appear to be fretting over the contest in the deeply Republican state. The deleted advertisement offered another example of artificial intelligence becoming tangled with campaign messaging and legal threats.

Samuel Sey, a popular right wing influencer known for supporting Trump’s racist crackdown targeting immigrants, has reportedly been detained by immigration officials. Sey is now facing deportation after allegedly overstaying a temporary visa.

The Pentagon apparently has guidelines governing the development of artificial intelligence tools, including rules intended to reduce the danger of escalating wars or harming civilians and troops. A congressional report found that officials are not always following those guidelines.

Anthropic also said its artificial intelligence tool accessed Georgia voting data that is typically available only to paying users. The company and Georgia’s secretary of state said the system did not access individual voter records, but the intrusion still marked another disturbing security breach involving artificial intelligence.

A new report said “the company’s statements about what its bot accessed raise more questions.” The episode adds to concerns about automated tools reaching databases and information that users may not expect them to access.

An investigation by The New York Times examined Alpha School, a network of private schools powered by artificial intelligence and backed by the Trump administration. The schools promise a superior learning experience, but the investigation suggested the network is failing to deliver on those promises.

Several MAGA influencers also recently traveled to Brazil and Serbia in hopes of influencing elections in both countries. The candidates they supported, described as favoring authoritarian politics, lost over the weekend.

Trump and a collection of highly online conservatives are now pushing false claims that Brazil’s election was rigged, according to the roundup. Their latest performance combines election denial, international meddling and social media grievance into one especially familiar MAGA package.

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