Blagojevich Trial Judge Part Of FISA Court Which Authorized PRISM

By aaroncynic in News on Jun 11, 2013 3:40PM

The revelations regarding the National Security Agency’s spying on American citizens are still unfolding and a Chicago judge has a connection. U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel, who presided over Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trials, the Family Secrets mob trials, as well as hacktivist Jeremy Hammond’s 2006 trial for hacking the website Protest Warrior belongs to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. A judge within the court would have approved the government’s request for the PRISM program, the massive data mining program collecting information on millions of Americans.

According to a spokesperson for the FISA Court who spoke with the Sun Times, 11 FISA judges rotate one week stays in Washington regularly. An unnamed former Justice Department attorney told Sun-Times Washington correspondent Lynn Sweet FISA Court personnel review highly classified applications for surveillance in a windowless room called a SKIFF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility).

Judge Zagel was appointed to the court by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts in 2008 and will serve until 2015. The FISA Court was initially comprised of seven judges, but the Patriot Act amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which created the court in 1978, to allow for 11 judges. Zagel declined an interview request by the Sun-Times on his FISA work.