Official Who Approved Improper Spying On Trump Aide Is Tapped For Advisory Role for court

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Mary McCord, a former Justice Department official who approved efforts to snoop on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, has been appointed to advise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The same court excoriated government officials in late 2019 for providing misleading information in four applications to surveil Page, who served as a Trump campaign national security adviser.

The surveillance court appointed McCord, who served as assistant attorney general for national security through May 2017, to be an amicus curiae on April 15.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relies on eight amicus curiae to provide advice and expertise on matters related to foreign intelligence collection.

McCord, who currently works at Georgetown University, helped oversee Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. She also took part in the process of reviewing an application the FBI submitted for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page, a former Naval officer who joined the Trump team in March 2016.

McCord is named 25 times in a Justice Department inspector general (IG) report that details a series of missteps by government officials during the Crossfire Hurricane probe.

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