By Russell Brandom
\nTHE VERGE<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Illustration by Alex Castro \/ The Verge<\/p><\/div>\n
Jennifer Newstead, a Trump appointee who served in the Justice Department under President Bush, will soon be taking over as general counsel of Facebook, the company announced\u00a0in a press release on Monday afternoon<\/a>. Newstead will take over from Colin Stretch, who announced plans to retire last year.<\/p>\n \u201cJennifer is a seasoned leader whose global perspective and experience will help us fulfill our mission,\u201d Sheryl Sandberg said in a statement included with the release.<\/p>\n But many are already troubled by Newstead\u2019s history lobbying and legislating for more powerful electronic surveillance.\u00a0As\u00a0The Hill<\/em>\u00a0points out<\/a>, a 2002 Justice Department\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0describes her as \u201chelping craft\u201d the legislation. Notorious Bush administration lawyer John Yoo\u00a0described her<\/a> as the \u201cday-to-day manager of the Patriot Act in Congress\u201d in his 2006 book.<\/p>\n Passed in the wake of the 9\/11 attacks, the Patriot Act greatly expanded the scope of the government\u2019s surveillance powers, enabling new techniques like roving wiretaps and so-called \u201csneak-and-peek\u201d warrants. Section 215 of the Patriot Act was used to justify the bulk collection of telephone records from US carriers<\/a>, although both the ruling and the legal interpretation that justified it remained secret until the Snowden leaks.<\/p>\n Most relevant for Facebook, the Patriot Act also initiated the practice of so-called \u201cnational security letters,\u201d in which intelligence agencies informally request specific data without the authorization of a court or judge, citing threats to national security.<\/p>\n Facebook is still actively dealing with these data demands, which have only escalated since NSA collection activities became public. Facebook received more than 32,000 requests for data from US law enforcement\u00a0in the second half of 2018<\/a>, and content from more than 20,000 accounts was requested by the FISA court over the same period. Little is known about the details of those requests, which are often subject to strict gag orders.<\/p>\n As general counsel, Newstead will be in a unique position to either block or enable those requests \u2014 and her professional history suggests she may be more sympathetic to the government\u2019s security mandate than users\u2019 desire for privacy.<\/p>\n Newstead will work closely with Joel Kaplan, Facebook\u2019s head of global policy. A prominent conservative, Kaplan\u00a0drew ire from many Facebook employees<\/a>\u00a0last year when he appeared as a guest at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n