Documents

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released partially redacted documents related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s (FISC) authorization of the 2018 certifications under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FISC initially approved most parts of the certification, but ruled that other aspects of the FBI protocols concerning information regarding U.S. persons were inadequate.

Thursday evening, the chairmen of the three House Committees—Oversight and Reform, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence—released text messages provided by Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s efforts to encourage Ukrainian officials to initiate an investigation of his possible political opponents in the 2020 presidential election.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York released a series of documents revealing that President Trump is suing both Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and the accounting firm Mazars over an attempt to obtain his tax returns. The complaint filed by lawyers of Trump suggests the request is unconstitutional since a sitting President cannot be criminally investigated. The court documents can be found here and below.

The Justice Department has filed a civil complaint against Edward Snowden alleging that he violated non-disclosure agreements he signed with the CIA and NSA by both giving interviews he and failing to submit his new book for pre-publication review. The government is also suing the publisher of Snowden’s book to ensure that no profits from book sales are transferred to Snowden before the suit is resolved. The complaint can be read here and below.