To me, in a nutshell, he came off as defensive, misdirecting, and obtuse. I see real institutional issues, and they don;t stop at the DOJ. The entire system, including the FISA judges, is a big expensive farce.
FBI is driving the FISA bus. DOJ is checking the odometer, and the judges assume that DOJ is critically reviewing the applications, so the judges do ZERO in the way of substantive review.
And to cap it off, the entire process is shrouded in secrecy, never to see the light of day.
Typical government function, and I am not in the least surprised to find the full "legal" power of the government used to subvert the political process.
He was also a little confusing talking about how he doesn’t sign off on FISA anymore, that he was only doing it because position that normally does was then empty. It was just funny the way he said it.
Nor I. It seems to be developing into the bureaucrats vs the people - with the Congress doing their usual disappearing act. I agree that there was an automatic signing of FISA warrants, and I think it was somewhat a result of the refusal of that FISA judge to allow examination of that 9/11 hi-jacker's laptop. That came back to bite them big!