Division overview | |
---|---|
Formed | March 9, 2005 |
Jurisdiction | United States government agency |
Headquarters | Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C., United States |
Division executive | |
Parent department | U.S. Department of Justice |
Website | Official website |
The United States Department of Justice National Security Division (NSD) handles national security functions of the department. Created by the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization, the division consolidated all of the department's national security and intelligence functions into a single division. The division is headed by the Assistant Attorney General for National Security.
The National Security Division was created under Section 506 of the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization, [1] which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on March 9, 2006. [2]
It consolidated the department's national security efforts within one unit, bringing together attorneys from the Counterterrorism Section and Counterespionage Section of the Criminal Division and from the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR), with their specialized expertise in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other intelligence matters. This fulfilled a recommendation of the Iraq Intelligence Commission (Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction). [3]
In 2010, its budget was $88 million. [4]
The head of the National Security Division is an Assistant Attorney General for National Security (AAG-NS) appointed by the President of the United States. Matthew G. Olsen, the current AAG-NS, was confirmed to the role with the advice and consent of the Senate. [5] Previously, John Demers, the AAG-NS appointed under President Donald Trump, continued to serve under the incoming President Joe Biden administration, but he left the role in June 2021 in the wake of news reports that the Justice officials had seized the phone records of Congressional members and staff. [6]
The National Security Division is overseen by the Assistant Attorney General with whom the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General oversees the Executive Office - The office that administers the entire division. In assistance are four deputy assistant attorneys general, all career civil servants, whom oversee each section.
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In December 2019, Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the DoJ released a report accusing the Division of lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in some of its applications for wiretaps. [7] [8] The Presiding Judge of the Court subsequently ordered the Division to "inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application." [9]
Name | President nominating | Sworn in | Left office |
---|---|---|---|
Kenneth Leonard Wainstein [10] | George W. Bush | September 28, 2006 [11] | March 30, 2008 |
J. Patrick Rowan | October 3, 2008 [12] | January 20, 2009 [13] | |
David S. Kris | Barack Obama | March 26, 2009 | January 13, 2011 [14] |
Lisa Monaco | July 1, 2011 [15] | March 8, 2013 | |
John P. Carlin | April 1, 2014 | October 15, 2016 [16] | |
Donald Trump | February 22, 2018 | June 25, 2021 [17] | |
Joe Biden | |||
Mark Lesko (acting) | June 25, 2021 | November 1, 2021 | |
Matt Olsen | November 1, 2021 | present |
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