As not too long ago as early final 12 months, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was contemplating utilizing NSO Group’s notorious Pegasus spy ware in felony investigations, . Between late 2020 and early 2021, company officers had been within the “advanced” phases of creating plans to transient FBI management on the software program, based on inner bureau paperwork and court docket information seen by The Times. Those paperwork additionally reveal the bureau had developed pointers for federal prosecutors detailing how the FBI’s use of Pegasus would must be disclosed throughout court docket instances.

Based on the paperwork, it’s unclear if the FBI had thought of utilizing the spy ware towards American residents. Earlier this 12 months, The Times discovered that the company had examined Phantom, a model of Pegasus that may goal telephones with .

By July 2021, the FBI ultimately determined to not use Pegasus in felony investigations. That’s the identical month that  revealed an investigation that claimed the software program had been used to compromise the telephones of two girls near murdered Saudi journalist . Just a few months later, the US positioned Pegasus creator NSO Group on the Commerce Department’s entity listing, a designation that forestalls US firms from conducting enterprise with the agency. Despite the choice to not use Pegasus, the FBI indicated it stays open to utilizing spy ware sooner or later.

“Just because the FBI ultimately decided not to deploy the tool in support of criminal investigations does not mean it would not test, evaluate and potentially deploy other similar tools for gaining access to encrypted communications used by criminals,” states a filed by the FBI final month.

The paperwork seem to current a distinct image of the company’s curiosity in Pegasus than the one FBI Director Chris Wray shared with Congress throughout a closed-doors listening to this previous December. “If you mean have we used it in any of our investigations to collect or target somebody, the answer is – as I’m assured – no,” he . “The reason why I hedge, and I want to be transparent, that we have acquired some of their tools for research and development. In other words, to be able to figure out how bad guys could use it, for example.”