Government Official Who Approved Improper Spying on Trump Staffer Tapped for Spy Court Advisory Role

Acting AAG for National Security Mary McCord speaks in front of a poster of a suspected Russian hacker during FBI National Security Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California joint news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, on March 15, 2017. Yuri Gripas/Reuters

• Former Justice Department official Mary McCord will serve in an advisory role for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court earlier this month.
• McCord was one of the officials who reviewed and approved warrants to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
• The FISC, which approved the warrants in 2016 and 2017, later excoriated government officials for providing false and misleading information about Page and the infamous Steele dossier.

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.