when district judge reggie walton who oversaw a u.s. spy court wrote a blistering opinion about the n.s.a.'s abuse of power in fact the judge almost shut down the government's domestic surveillance program after he quote lost confidence in the ability of n.s.a. officials to operate it in the right way but instead of shutting down the program walton instead ordered the n.s.a. to conduct an end to end review of its policies and mandated that the organization be subject to closer monitoring this might sound familiar to those of you who are following the fallout of the n.s.a. scandal which the president's major action has been calling for its own review board so there you have it thousands of ordinary americans being searched without meeting the n.s.a. standard of reasonable articulable suspicion and as punishment they're getting review boards in washington david are too you know to dive deeper into these as he documents i'm joined by marcy wheeler investigative reporter at mt will. marcy thanks for coming on what do these documents these on

bulk surveillance program but in 2009, the court while he came down on the nsa when district judge reggie waltonhat oversaw a u.s. spy court wrote a blistering opinion about the use of power. the judge almost shut down the government's domestic surveillance program after he "lost confidence in the ability to operate it in the right way. " he ordered the nsa to conduct a review of its policies. this might sound familiar for those of you following the fallout of the nsa scandal in which the president's major action has been calling for its own review board. >> to dive deeper into these documents, i was joined by an investigative reporter. i asked her, what do these documents released yesterday tell us about the oversight mechanisms in place at the nsa and the pfizer court. >> this program, when it was put under the court operated for 2.5 years before a judge came along and started figuring out what was going on. the judge that initially approved it was a judge that was in the white house during the nixon ford transition that means you probably knew cheney. it was stunningly bare. that was march an

district court judge reggie walton who oversaw a u.s. spy court almost shut down the government's domestic surveillance program after he quote lost confidence in the ability of n.s.a. officials to operate it in the right way judge walton gave a blistering opinion in two thousand and nine over the officials who had been accessing domestic phone records for nearly three years without quote reasonable articulate suspicion that those people really even connected to terrorism later that same year our justice department lawyer reported that in some cases it appeared the n.s.a. was distributing the sensitive phone records by e-mail to one hundred eighty nine analysts many who were not approved by the intelligence court to see them this information is exactly what senator ron wyden was referring to when he spoke about this very issue back in two thousand and eleven as a senate intel. committee member he was worried about the programs but couldn't say anything he said then quote when the american people find out how their government has secretly i

district judge reggie walton quote lost confidence is phrase and officials ability to operate the domestic spying program and legally anyway and so that the government was snooping on domestic phone records without reasonable articulate suspicion that those individuals were connected with terrorism while also wrote that he was deeply troubled by the incidents of unwarranted domestic spying so if the judge in this is a very conservative very republican judge if the judge who is responsible for overseeing the pfizer courts read as walter you're calling it inserted into republican appointed does he not know but no more public record he's a clinical one to go and two thousand i knew president that year remind me again because clint but go on with. so in any case he's saying two hundred have confidence firms are so do you guys have confidence in the n.s.a. you think that i think is right i wish he would have shut down the government spying program on their i wish he did not take a boy who literally was a boy that we now have had over in russia bringing this all kind of a light no way in kind of