So for six of the people in the United States known to be targeted by foreign surveillance warrants in the past, those warrants became public only after FBI had decided they were not spies.
In the first year after the attacks, for instance, Mr. Ashcroft approved 113 emergency authorizations for secret foreign intelligence warrants for electronic or physical surveillance, compared with fewer than 50 in the previous 23 years.
* In the first year after the attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft approved 113 emergency authorizations for secret foreign intelligence warrants for electronic or physical surveillance, compared with fewer than 50 in the previous 23 years.
Mr. Trump has the authority to fire Ms. Yates, but as the top Senate-confirmed official at the Justice Department, she is the only one authorized to sign foreign surveillance warrants, an essential function at the department.
Dana Boente has already been sworn in as acting attorney general, the White House confirms, at 9pm ET. The White House said he is now authorised to sign foreign surveillance warrants (Yates was previously the only person who could do so).
It is the kind of militaristic backdrop that would make some of his father's more trenchant supporters squeal, but Paul's campaign team evidently believes the caricature of the Kentucky senator as a dove on foreign policy warrants some unambiguous messaging.
Page, who has been the subject of a foreign surveillance warrant over his connections to Russia, said the Papadopoulos email exchange was another sign that the Russia communications were inconsequential.
The data reflected material gathered under foreign intelligence surveillance warrants in operations within the United States.
Yet both sides acknowledge that the administration's resurrection of virtually unchecked Cold War-era power to surveil foreign targets without warrants may be only temporary.
Mr. Levi, the attorney general, acknowledged that the law on such spying was "ill-defined" but said courts had upheld the president's power to order surveillance for foreign intelligence without warrants.
