The American people need to have confidence in the people tasked to serve as amici before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,” Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) told the Washington Free Beacon about Daskal’s selection.
He highlighted a bill he sponsors, the FISA Accountability Act, which would give Congress a role in selecting amici curiae for the court. Currently, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review appoint amici. Those roles are held by district court judge Anthony Trenga, a Bush appointee, and Stephen Higginson, an Obama appointee to U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (Mo.), another Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, grilled Daskal about her disinformation board background at a hearing on May 20.