This article has been updated to reflect new information about former NSA IG Dr. George Ellard.



President Donald Trump nominated Robert Storch on Monday to be the National Security Agency's first independent internal watchdog -- nearly three years after Congress passed legislation to make the NSA inspector general's office free from NSA leadership.

Historically, the NSA director has named the electronic spy agency's inspector general, creating potential conflicts of interest in reviewing alleged misconduct.

If confirmed by the Senate, Storch would take over from acting NSA inspector general Russell Decker, who took office after longtime NSA inspector general George Ellard stepped down as Inspector General in July 2016 to join the faculty of the National War College as the NSA designee.

NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers, who in August 2016 had proposed Ellard be removed from the agency on a charge that he retaliated against a whistleblower, instead placed Ellard on administrative leave.

Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense Stephanie Barna found that Ellard "did not take, fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take any action" to retaliate against the whistleblower. She further decided in December 2017 that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the charge and no penalty was imposed. Ellard remains an NSA employee in good standing.

It's unclear why President Barack Obama didn’t propose a candidate for Senate confirmation until November 2016, after NSA Director Michael Rogers recommended Ellard’s termination. Storch was also Obama's pick, but the Senate did not act.

Nick Schwellenbach, director of investigations at the Project on Government Oversight, speculates that nominating an independent NSA inspector general wasn't a high priority for the Obama administration, explaining the lapse since legislation passed in July 2014.

"We weren't happy with the amount of time it took Obama to nominate IGs to a number of positions," he says, noting that many Obama-era vacancies remain unfilled.

Schwellenbach strongly supports Storch's nomination, saying that he "cares passionately about whistleblower protections and he has experiences with some of these sensitive intelligence programs" operated by the NSA.

Whether independence will meaningfully strengthen oversight is a matter of debate.

Former NSA inspector general Joel Brenner, in office from 2002 to 2006, says he doesn't know Storch, but supports making the position subject to Senate confirmation.

“It's very important to have people who can make a living doing something else,” he says. “What we're talking about is setting up a system that people can have confidence in.”

Brenner, who like Horowitz declined to comment on Ellard, says he never felt pressure from NSA directors, but understands that perceptions matter.

"In the old days, before about 2000, it was customary to take someone out of the ranks of NSA and put them in that position," he adds. "And that was a very bad arrangement because the IG would then have to go back to work among the people they were inspecting or reviewing or investigating."

Brenner was an outside attorney before taking the position. But he says "if I had been called on to inspect the director, I would have gone to the Defense Department IG to do that because of the appearance I was not independent."

Trump's appointment comes as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which deeply probed NSA programs following Snowden's 2013 disclosures, returns to dormancy, with four of five seats vacant due to lack of presidential appointments.

Former NSA senior executive Thomas Drake, a whistleblower who contacted a reporter after raising internal concerns about wasteful surveillance spending, says he’s not sure an independent inspector general would improve oversight.

"During the time of my whistleblowing while at NSA, all protected disclosure channels turned into back channel exposure channels," Drake says. "I don’t think that would change if [the inspector general was] independent, given the institutional structures and loyalties that are deeply embedded in the national security psyche and culture."

Though the Defense Department's inspector general agreed with Drake's claim that an NSA program called Trailblazer wasted agency money, the report was withheld from the public until after the government's prosecution of Drake for leaking largely fell apart, with him agreeing to plead guilty in 2011 to a misdemeanor.

"Why would you want to blow the whistle when you may very well sacrifice your career, livelihood and well-being? The entire whistleblower protection system is in need of major reform," Drake says. "Independence could make public disclosure easier, but -- and this is a huge but -- they can hide the failures behind the wall of national security, secrecy and classification."

Horowitz, however, describes Storch's nomination as progress.

Horowitz says the Trump administration has improved outreach to current inspectors general about potential nominations and that "it's a positive sign to see a nomination come out for an IG position so promptly after an administration took office."