Statement of Robert P. Storch
before the
U.S. Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence
concerning

Nomination to be Inspector General of the National Security Agency

July 19, 2017

Chairman Burr, Vice-Chairman Warner, and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today regarding my nomination
to be the first Presidentially appointed Senate confirmed Inspector General at the
National Security Agency (NSA). I believe that this position presents an exciting
opportunity to lead the development of the Office of the Inspector General’s
independent oversight at a critically important government agency. I would like to
take the opportunity to recognize my family and colleagues who have come to be
with me today. [Recognition of family members and colleagues]
I cannot go forward without expressing my great appreciation to my Inspector
General, Michael E. Horowitz. IG Horowitz hired me out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office
to work in the Front Office at the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General
(DOJ OIG) back in 2012, and he selected me to be Deputy IG in 2014. I have had
the privilege of working side by side with him, and I have tried to learn from him on
a daily basis. He is a remarkably gifted IG, and provides which I believe to be a
tremendous example both as to how to conduct vigorous independent oversight on a
wide range of sensitive and important issues, and how an IG should be responsive to
Congress and keep Members and staff appropriately informed so as to further the
Congress’ important constitutional and oversight functions and ensure that the work
of the OIG is directed appropriately. In his capacity as Chair of the Council of the
Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), Michael was the one who
initially asked if I would be open to being considered for an IG position and, if I am
confirmed as the IG at NSA, I intend to do my best to emulate his example both
within the agency and with Congress.
I also want to thank you, Chairman Burr, for taking the time out of your busy
schedule to meet with me, and Vice-Chairman Warner, I greatly appreciate the efforts
of your staff to schedule a meeting as well. I am sorry that there was not time given
the prompt scheduling of the hearing – which let me quickly say I appreciate very
much – for me to meet in advance of the hearing with you and with the other
Members of the Committee. But I want to assure the Committee that, if confirmed
for this position, I would welcome the opportunity to meet with each of you and your
staffs on a regular and ongoing basis to ensure the sort of robust and appropriate
communication that I believe the Inspector General Act contemplates. I believe
strongly in the importance of Congressional oversight, which seems particularly
critical in an area such as this where so much of what happens occurs outside the
public eye and, therefore, the public’s confidence depends to a great extent on
knowing that their elected representatives are fully and timely informed regarding
the operations of the agency and steps being taken or that should be taken to
improve those functions.
In that regard, as this Committee knows well, in 2014, the Congress
determined that the IG at the NSA should a Presidentially appointed Senate confirmed
position, clearly reflecting the importance of independent oversight and
responsiveness to Congress. I recognize that this position presents significant
challenges. I hope that, if confirmed, my background as a federal prosecutor and in
helping to lead the operations of the OIG at DOJ, and my various interactions with

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the intelligence community in those capacities, would position me well to work with
the staff of the NSA OIG to meet those challenges and, thereby, to provide
independent oversight that detects and deters waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct,
and helps to ensure that the NSA meets its essential functions with integrity and
efficiency and, of course, consistent with civil rights and civil liberties.
The pre-hearing materials that I have submitted to the Committee detail my
background. Following a federal judicial clerkship and a brief stint at a large law firm
here in Washington, I became an Assistant United States Attorney in May 1987. Over
the next twenty-five years, I worked as a federal prosecutor at two U.S. Attorney’s
Offices (USAO) -- in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, and later in my wife’s
hometown of Albany, New York -- and in between for several years at the DOJ
Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, followed by another brief stint in private
practice when we first moved to upstate New York. I believe that my two dozen
years as a federal prosecutor handling various types of complex criminal cases taught
me a great deal about how to gather and consider evidence, about following the
evidence where ever it leads, and about pursuing charges and outcomes vigorously
but fairly and in the interests of justice.
Immediately following the September 11 attacks, I was selected by the U.S.
Attorney to be the Northern District of New York’s initial Anti-Terrorism Coordinator.
In that position, I worked closely with criminal and intelligence components of the
FBI and other agencies in helping to organize and direct anti-terrorism efforts in the
District, and in standing up our first Anti-Terrorism Task Force. I also held a number
of other positions at different times at the USAO, including serving for many years as
Civil Rights and Hate Crimes Coordinator, and later as Senior Litigation Counsel and
Chief of our Appellate Division. In the latter position, I honed my writing skills in
preparing and helping others to prepare appellate briefs, skills that I have since found
valuable in reviewing and working with OIG teams on many of our written reports to
ensure that they are comprehensive, comprehensible, and impactful. While at the
USAO, I served for over a decade on the Department’s Evaluation and Review Staff,
participating in periodic peer reviews of other U.S. Attorney’s Offices – my first real
experience with that type of work. I also have worked abroad on behalf of the FBI
and DOJ, teaching at a number of anti-corruption and other programs, and I was
detailed with my family for two years in Ukraine on a DOJ program that provided
technical assistance in the development of measures to address official corruption,
including helping to create the framework for internal investigation units modeled on
OIGs.
In 2012, with our youngest daughter heading off to college, my wife and I
decided to move back to Washington and I accepted a position in the Front Office at
the OIG, where I hoped that I could use my varied experiences within the Department
in a different but important way. While I already had spent many years at DOJ, one
thing I came to understand early on is that OIGs are part of their agencies, but they
also are separate from them -- our independent oversight role requiring that we
maintain the distance necessary to permit the objective analysis and perspective that
is, in itself, one of the most valuable aspects of the IG system. In this regard, I have
had the opportunity to participate with the IG in various meetings and briefings with

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the highest levels of Department leadership, where I have seen and, I hope, learned
how to maintain that relationship regardless of the nature or sensitivity of the issues.
On a number of occasions, I also have participated in meetings where we informed
Department leadership about issues of which they were not previously aware,
something that is inevitable within any large organization and a key benefit of having
an independent IG to uncover such concerns and recommend solutions to agency
management.
During my time at DOJ OIG, I have been involved in the review of a number
of reports that have continued our office’s long record of conducting independent
oversight regarding the exercise of intelligence and national security authorities by
DOJ, in particular by the National Security Division and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, as well as their interaction with other parts of the intelligence
community. I also have participated in the Deputies meetings of the Intelligence
Community Inspector General (IC IG) Forum and attended its annual conferences.
Through these experiences, as a prosecutor and then at the OIG, I have had the
opportunity to interact with various aspects of the intelligence community, but I am
not a product of it. If confirmed, I hope that my experience and perspective would
be of assistance in working with the personnel of the NSA OIG to carry out the
significant responsibilities that Congress has entrusted to it.
If confirmed, in addition to maintaining regular lines of communication with
agency leadership and the Congress, I would anticipate meeting early on with
personnel from across the OIG to facilitate open communications within the office
and obtain their perspectives on potential areas for improvement. This is something
that I do with the IG on a regular basis at DOJ OIG, and have found to be very
valuable in working with him to lead change within the organization. One area that
I know to be of importance for all OIGs is furthering whistleblower rights and
protections. When I first discussed coming to the OIG with IG Horowitz, we spoke
about starting up a new Whistleblower Ombudsperson program and, under his
leadership, we have developed a robust program that I am proud to say has been
widely recognized a leader across the OIG community. I have put in place a number
of educational efforts and other mechanisms that are detailed in my responses to the
Committee’s additional prehearing questions, all of which efforts are built on one
bedrock principle: whistleblowers perform a valuable service to the agency and the
public when they come forward with what they reasonably believe to be evidence of
wrongdoing, and they should never face reprisal for doing so. Agencies are too big
and their operations too varied for oversight to function without people on the front
lines being willing to come forward when they see something they believe is wrong.
This I think is particularly true within the intelligence community, where it seems to
me it is critical that employees and contractors know that there are avenues available
for them to bring forward such information, that their disclosures will be taken
seriously, and that they will not face reprisal for performing the often difficult act of
coming forward to report what they believe to be problems or wrongdoing within their
own organization.
In addition to leading our whistleblower efforts at DOJ OIG, I also founded and
continue to serve as chair of the CIGIE Whistleblower Ombudsman Working Group,

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which meets quarterly to share best practices, discuss current developments, and
interact with presenters from within and outside government. I have been pleased
to work with Congress on whistleblower issues, including helping to organize a
program with the bipartisan Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus at which we
were grateful to have Senator Grassley and Senator Wyden speak as the Chair and
Vice-Chair of that important group. If confirmed, I would welcome the opportunity
to work with the Committee to continue such efforts, and I will do everything in my
power to further whistleblower rights and protections at the NSA.
I cannot think of an agency with a more important mission than the NSA, and
I have tremendous respect for the dedicated men and women who are critical to its
success. If confirmed, I would be privileged to have the opportunity to lead the NSA
OIG to further the integrity and efficiency of the agency’s operations, which as the
NSA’s very name makes clear, are essential to our national security.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning, and I look
forward to your questions.

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