President Donald Trump targeted Twitter ire Sunday toward David Kris, a Mercer Island resident and former assistant U.S. attorney general appointed to help a secretive federal court assess the FBI’s proposed surveillance reforms.
“You can’t make this up!” Trump wrote on Twitter, calling Kris “a highly controversial former DOJ official” and ending the missive by adding “Zero credibility. THE SWAMP!” and tagging U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican, Maria Bartiromo, a Fox News anchor, and the news network itself.
You can’t make this up! David Kris, a highly controversial former DOJ official, was just appointed by the FISA Court to oversee reforms to the FBI’s surveillance procedures. Zero credibility. THE SWAMP! @DevinNunes @MariaBartiromo @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA court, oversees surveillance and search warrants involving foreign spying efforts inside the United States. Much of the court’s work is kept secret because it involves sensitive national security material.
The court’s presiding judge, James Boasberg, on Friday appointed Kris to advise the court and asked him to submit an assessment by Jan. 31. The appointment follows controversy over warrant applications for a wiretap of Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign. The FBI was investigating whether Page was being recruited by the Russian government as an agent. The FBI’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), an internal watchdog of the agency, found “significant errors and omissions” because of incomplete or inaccurate information in agents’ applications for surveillance of Page.
The court last month scolded the FBI after the watchdog’s findings and ordered the agency to report what it had done and what it would do to ensure its court filings were accurate.
In a Friday response to the court, FBI Director Christopher Wray apologized for the agency’s handling of the surveillance warrants.
“The FBI has the utmost respect for this Court, and deeply regrets the errors and omissions identified by the OIG,” Wray wrote, describing the agency’s conduct as “unacceptable and unrepresentative of the FBI as an institution.”
Kris, 53, was an associate deputy attorney general in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush, and headed the department’s national security division from 2009 to 2011 under President Barack Obama. He led the agency’s response to an attempted bombing of Times Square, the so-called underwear bombing and other major terrorism incidents, according to a 2011 Department of Justice news release.
Trump tweet targets Mercer Island man appointed to advise secretive federal surveillance court
Kris is a respected figure in the national security field and one of several experts who advise the FISA court on complex cases, according to a report in The Washington Post.
“David is a true national security professional and has served the Justice Department with great distinction under both Democratic and Republican administrations,” Kenneth Wainstein, a former assistant attorney general for national security under the George W. Bush administration and a former FBI general counsel, told The Washington Post. “There is nobody who knows more or cares more about our national security processes, their effectiveness and adherence to our laws and constitution.”
Kris has been outspoken about the Page FISA applications, regularly blogging about them for Lawfare, an online publication devoted to national security issues where he is a contributing editor and sits on the board, according to the online biography.
Conservative figures and media outlets seized on Kris’ appointment, arguing the move signaled that the court was not taking reform of the FBI’s practices seriously and that Kris was sympathetic to the FBI.
Trump has complained the FBI is politically biased against him and has cited the agency’s tactics in investigating Page.
Congressman Nunes called Kris an “FBI apologist” during a segment with Bartiromo. The Daily Caller described Kris as an “ardent defender of the FBI’s surveillance of Carter Page” and a “vocal critic of Republicans who suggested the FBI misled the survehttps://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/trump-tweet-targets-mercer-island-man-appointed-to-advise-secretive-federal-surveillance-court/