EPIC FOIA – Kavanaugh Drafted White House Speeches on Warrantless Wiretapping

Emails obtained by EPIC in a FOIA lawsuit show that now Justice Kavanaugh, as a top White House advisor, drafted several speeches defending warrantless wiretapping after the New York Times exposed the controversial program in 2005. EPIC has created an index of the email subject lines to illustrate Kavanaugh's role in President Bush's 2006 State of the Union, former Attorney General Gonzales' January 2006 speech at Georgetown Law, and speeches promoting border surveillance. Kavanaugh was particularly involved in revising a paragraph on the NSA program in the 2006 State of the Union. Documents previously obtained by EPIC revealed that Kavanaugh exchanged hundreds of emails with White House and DOJ staff about the NSA surveillance program and gathered legal justifications for the program. Congress ended the controversial program in 2015, following extensive hearings. On the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in 2015, Judge Kavanaugh issued a surprising opinion on surveillance authority. Senator Leahy pursued Kavanaugh's views on surveillance during the Supreme Court nomination hearing.