Judicial Nominee Investigated for Misuse of Federal Surveillance Tools

But we're supposed to trust them!

A senior Republican lawmaker is looking into allegations that a former general counsel of the FBI bore greater responsibility for abuses of surveillance authorities than previously known.

The former official, Valerie E. Caproni, left the FBI in 2011 and has been nominated by President Obama to be a judge in the Southern District of New York.

As general counsel, Caproni and her office had legal oversight over the bureau's use of intelligence-gathering tools called national security letters, or NSLs, and exigent letters, both of which were used to obtain phone and e-mail records of U.S. citizens and residents without a court sign-off.