National Security Agency

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has demanded acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller to "immediately cease" installing Trump's National Security Council staffer Michael Ellis as new NSA General Counsel.

"I ask that you immediately cease plans to improperly install Michael Ellis as the new NSA General Counsel. Additionally, with a copy of this letter to the Acting Inspector General, I am also requesting an investigation into the circumstances of the NSA General Counsel selection process. I have serious concerns about your statement that this process was free from political interference," Pelosi wrote. "Public reporting indicates that Mr. Ellis, a relatively recent law school graduate with a limited resume, was selected due to interference by the White House, and was chosen over much more qualified candidates. Moreover, Mr. Ellis has been reportedly involved in highly questionable activities that are disqualifying – including the infamous 2017 “midnight run” to launder intelligence information through Rep. Devin Nunes and with efforts to shield information about President Trump’s July 2019 call with the President of Ukraine."

The National Security Agency program that swept up details on billions of Americans' phone calls was illegal and possibly unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Donald Trump said on Saturday, to reporters at his Bedminster golf club, that he is "going to start looking at it" at the issue of giving a pardon to Edward Snowden.

Snowden fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after he leaked a trove of secret files in 2013 to news organisations. The data contained vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA.

Trump's stance toward Snowden represents a sharp reversal. Back in 2013, Trump expressed here hostility toward Snowden, calling him "a spy who should be executed."