Lisa Monaco isn’t just a legal official—she’s an institutional architect of the post-9/11 surveillance state. Her fingerprints are etched into some of the most consequential decisions in U.S. national security: the legal architecture of FISA abuse, the suppression of classified information, the criminalization of journalism, and the unprecedented synchronization of health crises and executive power. From the shadows of FBI backrooms to the apex of pandemic enforcement, Monaco didn’t merely enforce the system—she helped build it.
Lisa Oudens Monaco (born February 25, 1968, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American attorney and national security expert whose career has been deeply rooted in public service, particularly within the U.S. Department of Justice. Raised in Newton, Massachusetts, Monaco developed a longstanding reputation for her leadership in counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and federal law enforcement policy. By July 2025, she will hold dual roles as a distinguished scholar in residence at NYU Law and a senior national security analyst for CNN.
Educated at Harvard University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1990, and the University of Chicago Law School, where she received her Juris Doctor in 1997, Monaco quickly rose through the ranks of government service. Her most prominent appointment came in 2021, when President Joe Biden nominated her as Deputy Attorney General. Following her confirmation by the U.S. Senate on April 20, 2021, she assumed office the next day as the Department’s second-highest official.
Lisa Monaco’s rise through the upper echelons of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI was marked by a steady accumulation of influence, trust, and responsibility during some of the nation’s most critical moments in counterterrorism and national security. From 2007 to 2009, as Chief of Staff to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Monaco embedded herself in the nerve center of America’s counterterrorism strategy—directly managing post-9/11 operations and legal coordination at the highest level. That proximity to intelligence infrastructure paved the way for her return to the DOJ, where she swiftly ascended from Associate Deputy Attorney General to become, by 2011, the first woman to lead the National Security Division. She became deeply embedded in the Bureau’s internal operations at a time when the agency was undergoing significant transformation following the 9/11 attacks. Her work involved shaping strategic decisions on intelligence, counterterrorism policy, and operational coordination, earning her a reputation for analytical rigor and discretion at the intersection of law enforcement and national security.
Following her tenure at the FBI, Monaco transitioned back to the Department of Justice, where she was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General in 2009. In that capacity, and later as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, she played a central role in the DOJ’s oversight of national security investigations and criminal enforcement strategy. Her portfolio spanned an array of sensitive areas, including intelligence oversight, cybercrime, and interagency legal coordination, positioning her as one of the most trusted legal advisors within the department’s senior leadership circle.
In 2011, President Obama appointed Monaco as Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, making her the first woman ever to hold the post. Intense operational demands and high-stakes decisions defined her tenure. She oversaw all federal efforts to combat terrorism, espionage, and proliferation threats. Monaco also had jurisdiction over matters involving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), giving her substantial influence over the legal architecture underpinning domestic surveillance. Under her leadership, the DOJ expanded and strengthened its cyber-prosecutor network, enabling more effective responses to state-sponsored hacking, digital espionage, and infrastructure attacks. She presided over several classified and high-profile national security cases during a volatile period in global security, solidifying her role as a key architect of the post-9/11 security state.
Between 2009 and 2013, Lisa Monaco held two of the most powerful roles in the Department of Justice related to national security and cyber enforcement—first as Associate Deputy Attorney General and then as Assistant Attorney General for National Security. In these positions, she not only helped shape the DOJ’s cybercrime and counterespionage strategy but also directly oversaw the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, intelligence coordination, and legal responses to the unauthorized disclosure of classified material. Her tenure coincided precisely with the rise of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, whose publication of U.S. diplomatic cables and war logs in 2010 prompted the DOJ to begin building a legal framework for potential Espionage Act charges.
They let you pick the music, sure—but the steps were already written. What you call freedom is just rehearsed obedience in someone else’s routine.~Tore Maras
This quote of mine will make sense by the end of this reading.
PLANDEMIC “EXPERTISE”
Lisa Monaco played a significant role in the U.S. government’s Ebola response in 2014–2015, working closely with Ron Klain, who had been appointed by President Obama as the official Ebola Response Coordinator, often referred to as the “Ebola Czar.” Their collaboration was both operational and strategic, unfolding during one of the most high-pressure public health crises of the Obama administration.
At the time, Monaco was serving in the White House as the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to the President—a position that made her the top official responsible for coordinating national preparedness and response for pandemics, terrorism, natural disasters, and biosecurity threats. When the Ebola outbreak began to escalate internationally in 2014, particularly in West Africa, Monaco was among the first senior officials to raise internal alarms about the virus potentially reaching the United States. She briefed President Obama directly on the growing threat. She was instrumental in shaping the decision to elevate the crisis to a national security priority rather than treating it solely as a public health matter.
Monaco’s role intensified after the first Ebola case was diagnosed on U.S. soil in Dallas, Texas, in September 2014. She was tasked with overseeing interagency coordination, ensuring that the CDC, HHS, DoD, and DHS were synchronized in their messaging, resource deployment, and emergency response planning. Media reports at the time show her working behind the scenes, urging the administration to establish a more centralized command structure to counter fragmented responses across agencies. It was under her guidance and urging that Obama appointed Ron Klain as the Ebola Czar in October 2014—a move designed to streamline communication between agencies and offer a unified front to the public and the world.
Their partnership was highly complementary. Klain, who came from a political and legal background and had previously served as Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden, was brought in for his management acumen and ability to coordinate rapidly. Monaco remained the senior-most national security official in the loop, translating the public health emergency into actionable policy frameworks, managing the risk matrix across borders, and providing the President with daily updates. Reports indicate that while Klain handled the logistics and operational execution of the U.S. response, Monaco continued to offer the overarching threat analysis and ensured the response aligned with homeland security protocols.
One well-documented moment of their coordination occurred during the drafting and implementation of travel protocols for passengers arriving from West Africa. Monaco worked with Klain, CDC Director Tom Frieden, and DHS to implement enhanced airport screenings and to develop a tracking system for individuals potentially exposed to the virus. She also coordinated the DOJ’s role in ensuring quarantine and isolation procedures could be enforced legally, should the need arise.
Lisa Monaco became Deputy Attorney General (DAG) on April 21, 2021. She entered a Biden administration where her former colleague, Ron Klain, was serving as White House Chief of Staff, and the U.S. was still deeply entangled in the COVID-19 pandemic. Their collaboration, once forged during the 2014 Ebola crisis, now reemerged in a more powerful and entrenched form—this time with Monaco overseeing core components of the Justice Department’s operational response, and Klain orchestrating White House pandemic policy at the executive level.
Although the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House COVID-19 Response Team led much of the public-facing medical guidance and vaccine distribution infrastructure, Lisa Monaco played a critical role in the legal, regulatory, and enforcement apparatus behind the scenes. As DAG, she was responsible for overseeing the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Criminal Division, and Office of Legal Counsel, and coordinating with federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Bureau of Prisons. Her influence extended over pandemic-related civil enforcement actions, fraud prosecutions, data privacy concerns related to vaccine records, and guidance on mandatory vaccination enforcement within federal institutions and contractors.
Monaco’s DOJ formally supported the Biden administration’s controversial vaccine mandates for federal workers and federal contractors, which were implemented via executive order in September 2021. DOJ attorneys under her authority defended the mandates in court, arguing for the federal government’s power to impose such requirements under public health and administrative law. In internal briefings and published memos, DOJ maintained that vaccine enforcement efforts—especially regarding compliance within the federal workforce—were to be carried out with support from agencies under Monaco’s supervision, including the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons. She also directed resources toward prosecuting pandemic relief fraud, a growing area of white-collar crime that emerged from abuse of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).
Her role wasn’t limited to enforcement. Monaco also helped shape the DOJ’s position on how pandemic-related data—such as vaccination status and digital health credentials—should be handled under existing privacy laws, including HIPAA and federal data-sharing protocols. She oversaw cybercrime units tracking ransomware attacks against hospitals and health systems, many of which were carried out by foreign actors during the height of the pandemic. In essence, Monaco navigated the legal and operational terrain that enabled the Biden White House, under Klain’s direction, to implement and enforce its pandemic response through legal channels.
Their previous working relationship during the Ebola outbreak meant that Monaco and Klain already understood each other’s roles in public health crisis management. The difference in 2021 was scale: instead of tracking inbound travelers from West Africa, they were now co-managing the largest vaccine rollout in American history under layers of executive authority, federal contracting, digital recordkeeping, and civil enforcement. While Monaco rarely appeared in public COVID-19 briefings, her fingerprints were on everything from the DOJ’s defense of vaccine mandates to the investigative frameworks behind pandemic fraud, enforcement of OSHA rules, and the intersection of biometric surveillance and public health policy.
This seamless coordination between Lisa Monaco and Ron Klain—refined during the Ebola outbreak and scaled during the COVID-19 pandemic—did more than manage a crisis; it established a new framework of control. Through their entwined roles, they demonstrated how legal authority, health policy, and federal enforcement could be synchronized and executed with surgical precision, largely shielded from public scrutiny. What emerged was not merely a response to a pandemic, but the activation of a governing model—one that blurred the line between public mandate and private enforcement, federal power and corporate infrastructure.
Monaco’s command over the DOJ’s machinery ensured that every legal obstacle to executive pandemic authority was preemptively neutralized, while Klain’s White House served as the operational nerve center. Behind the scenes, the mechanisms they refined relied heavily on private entities operating with government access, but without government constraints. In the days ahead, I will show how this model—rooted in quasi-public privatization—enables a select few to wield federal authority without federal accountability. Through hybrid entities that masquerade as private while functioning as public extensions, they impose policies, control infrastructure, and surveil populations behind a corporate veil. This is not governance in the traditional sense—it is control through delegation, disguised as innovation, and reinforced by plausible deniability.
ASSANGE LEAD
While Monaco did not personally sign the final indictment against Assange, which came years later under the Trump administration, the legal theories at the core of that prosecution—alleging that the act of publishing, or assisting in the acquisition of classified material, constituted a national security threat—were forged under her leadership. Under Monaco’s direction, the DOJ laid the legal foundation for redefining investigative journalism as espionage and an Orwellian threshold that continues to chill press freedom to this day. As the DOJ’s top national security official at the time, she would have reviewed and likely shaped internal arguments regarding whether and how to treat Assange as a prosecutable figure, blurring the line between journalism and espionage. Years later, as Deputy Attorney General under President Biden, Monaco had the apparent authority to reevaluate or terminate the Assange extradition effort. Instead, the DOJ, under her guidance, continued to pursue his extradition aggressively, reaffirming the prosecutorial posture that her earlier work had helped construct. Her work helped codify a chilling precedent: journalism could be redefined as treason if it embarrassed the state.
Lisa Monaco’s role during the Chelsea Manning leaks and prosecution was pivotal, even though the Army conducted the court‑martial. Between 2009 and 2013, Monaco first served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and then as Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, placing her at the DOJ’s strategic center during a moment when the leaks of diplomatic cables, war logs, and the “Collateral Murder” video rocked the intelligence community.
Internal Department memos from that time, later declassified, show that her division was deeply involved in assessing whether civilian prosecutions were warranted beyond the military case, particularly scrutinizing the potential criminal liability of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, under the Espionage Act.
In Senate testimony, senior DOJ officials highlighted the critical role of the FISA-authorized surveillance and cyberstrategy frameworks—overseen by Monaco—in building prosecutorial foundations for these national security matters. Although she was never the face of the Manning prosecution, Monaco’s fingerprints are evident in the case’s architecture: her leadership helped shape the legal contours that justified the surveillance and prosecution of leaks, and established the prosecutorial stance later used against Assange. That stance carried forward into her tenure as Deputy Attorney General, when the DOJ vigorously pursued Assange’s extradition efforts rooted in the legal strategy and policy groundwork she helped construct amid the Manning crisis.
FISA ABUSE
In addition to her role in the Assange matter, Monaco’s earlier oversight of the FISA process placed her squarely within the legal and bureaucratic structure that later enabled some of the most controversial surveillance authorizations in recent memory. Although she was no longer in office when the Carter Page warrant was ultimately signed and submitted to the FISA court, the framework she helped shape during her tenure as Assistant Attorney General for National Security—particularly the DOJ’s interpretation of foreign intelligence standards, minimization procedures, and evidentiary thresholds—played a foundational role.
That structure, once designed to target foreign threats, evolved into a system that could be weaponized for domestic political surveillance. The Carter Page FISA warrant, later condemned for containing material omissions and misleading information, did not emerge in a vacuum; it was the downstream result of years of policy, legal theory, and surveillance normalization, much of it developed during Monaco’s leadership at the National Security Division. Her proximity to the architecture that enabled that abuse—paired with her public silence as Deputy Attorney General when the full extent of the misconduct was revealed—underscores her complicity not necessarily in the act itself, but in the system that made it possible.
Lisa Monaco’s involvement with FISA spans both its pre- and post-abuse phases. Having first overseen foreign intelligence surveillance applications as Assistant Attorney General for National Security from 2011 to 2013, she later returned as Deputy Attorney General in April 2021, just as the Department was implementing reforms following serious criticisms of the FISA process.
Upon taking office, Monaco inherited a system still reeling from the fallout of the Carter Page surveillance abuses, which her predecessor’s policies had contributed to. Internal Justice Department memos from early 2023, such as the “Recent Efforts to Strengthen FISA Compliance” briefing, illustrate how Monaco spearheaded the implementation of new oversight measures: stricter auditing of foreign intelligence queries, reinforced query training for FBI agents, and tighter coordination between the FBI and the National Security Division.
At the same time, reports emerged that the misuse of Section 702 warrants—commonly used to collect foreign intelligence—had persisted. Media outlets highlighted thousands of so-called “backdoor searches” and widespread noncompliance with internal procedures, spurring renewed legislative debate over reauthorization in 2023
These reforms coincided with a broader real-time reshaping of FISA policy. A federal court has ruled that the FBI’s warrantless “backdoor” searches of Americans’ communications—conducted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—are unconstitutional, violating the Fourth Amendment. The ruling by U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall brings an end to years of litigation challenging the practice. Section 702 permits broad surveillance of foreign communications, but the FBI has routinely accessed this data to investigate U.S. citizens without warrants. Despite mounting congressional pressure to require warrants before searching Section 702 data, Monaco publicly defended the program’s necessity, urging reforms from within rather than surrendering its scope.
Ironically, throughout Monaco’s tenure, FBI and DOJ developers flagged persistent issues: audits revealed hundreds of non-compliant FISA requests, and the Office of Inspector General criticized systemic failures in FISA vetting. Monaco’s tenure was thus a paradox: while her office managed FISA’s expansion and defended its operational grid, it did so amidst widespread reports of misuse. By integrating reform into surveillance enforcement, she extended FISA’s reach, bolstered its legal defenses, and undercut efforts to impose external judicial constraints, such as requiring warrants for Section 702 backdoor searches. Even after a 2025 court ruling deemed such searches unconstitutional, Monaco’s DOJ had framed these actions as essential national security tools, positioning compliance reinforcement. In essence, Monaco did more than “clean up” FISA; she secured its institutional future.
Under her watch, surveillance powers were expanded and modernized, not dismantled.
EPSTEIN
Lisa Monaco, as Deputy Attorney General from 2021 to 2025, held sweeping authority within the Department of Justice, second only to the Attorney General. Her command extended over the FBI, the Criminal Division, the Office of Legal Counsel, and other powerful DOJ components. In that role, she had institutional control over resource deployment, internal policy, prosecutorial discretion, and the classification or prioritization of investigations. If sensitive files related to Jeffrey Epstein were ever sealed, suppressed, withheld, or purged under procedural justifications such as case closure, privacy statutes, or prosecutorial irrelevance, such actions would have fallen squarely under the structural authority she wielded.
For any effort to suppress or eliminate Epstein case records, someone in Monaco’s position would not need to act overtly. With the ability to issue classified directives or internal DOJ memoranda, she could influence document retention policies and investigative status determinations behind closed doors. By leveraging bureaucratic levers—especially surrounding inactive investigations or sealed proceedings—she could lawfully justify the archival or removal of sensitive records from public visibility. This would require coordination with high-ranking officials at the FBI’s New York Field Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (Maureen Comey), or senior personnel within the DOJ headquarters.
Monaco’s profound mastery of FISA and DOJ information control didn’t just empower surveillance—it enabled concealment. As DAG, she had the authority to classify, reclassify, or exempt sensitive material from national security requirements. If Epstein-related documents were ever moved, sealed, or erased, she wouldn’t need to leave fingerprints. She’d only need to invoke “foreign intelligence relevance,” triggering protections that shield evidence from FOIA, litigation, and congressional review. Once routed through secure compartments—marked SCIF, SAP, or “law enforcement sensitive”—those files could vanish from public memory, all under the color of law.
I first crossed paths with Monaco in 2007 while conducting a classified assignment on behalf of my customer, the CIA. At the time, she was the Chief of Staff of FBI Director Mueller. Yet, she unexpectedly coordinated travel and lodging logistics for a U.S. State Department operation—something clearly outside her formal remit. Her involvement felt oddly casual, even personal. Only later did I come to realize this wasn’t personal at all—it was operational theater. Monaco, I now believe, was applying bureaucratic camouflage to obscure the nature of the assignment, shielding aspects of the mission even from those executing it. That quiet mastery of information boundaries—of controlling what’s visible, and to whom—wasn’t incidental. It was her method.
As the former Assistant Attorney General for National Security (2011–2013) and later as Deputy Attorney General (2021–2025), Monaco had direct familiarity with the classified processes that govern surveillance, national security investigations, and the retention of intelligence evidence. This includes how information is stored, how it’s labeled (e.g., “foreign intelligence,” “law enforcement sensitive,” “classified”), and what statutory exemptions can shield it from disclosure, even to other parts of the government. She would understand the full range of mechanisms under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and related executive authorities, including how to reclassify material under “national security interest,” placing it outside public and even congressional reach.
Moreover, Monaco’s oversight of the DOJ’s National Security Division and Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (which prepares FISA applications) would mean she knew exactly how to route evidence through secure compartments, obscure it under minimization procedures, or house it in sensitive compartments like SCIFs (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities), where even internal DOJ access becomes restricted.
If she or trusted subordinates deemed Epstein-related materials politically or institutionally damaging, they could theoretically justify placing them under such controls, arguing, for example, that foreign counterintelligence risks were involved (given Epstein’s international ties). Once filed under these classifications, the records would become functionally immune to FOIA, public lawsuits, and even many internal audits. And if digital scrubbing were ordered under DOJ decommissioning procedures for “expired” or “inactive” case files, her technical background and command structure would have allowed her to authorize metadata deletion across multiple repositories, from the FBI’s Sentinel system to DOJ’s evidence management platforms.
In short, Monaco’s role as FISA czar didn’t just give her legal authority—it gave her procedural mastery of the classified ecosystems where evidence can quietly disappear.
While FBI Director Christopher Wray did not publicly confirm that he watched every internal maneuver related to the Epstein files, recent reports and oversight scrutiny suggest his leadership was deeply engaged throughout the controversy. A Washington Post article revealed growing tensions within the Justice Department and FBI over a memo that downplayed the existence of a client list—tensions that reportedly involved Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Director Wray.
Wray is a note-taker. Therefore, IF he documented internal dissent or concerns in his notes or presidential briefings, which would remain classified unless released by subpoena or executive order. So while internal frictions suggest Wray’s oversight and potential awareness of Epstein file decisions, there’s no evidence he plans to declassify or reveal what he “took note of.” The momentum now lies with Patel and Bondi to decide what—if anything—will be shared with Congress or the public.
Important to Note
Lisa Monaco and John Brennan shared an unusually intertwined path through the national security structure of the Obama administration. Both served as Deputy National Security Advisors for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, becoming central figures in shaping America’s approach to crisis response, counterterrorism, and surveillance policy from 2009 onward.
I was first introduced to Ms. Monaco as a University of Chicago Law alumna and described, at the time, as a close personal friend of then-President Barack Obama. She was unmarried, and her familiarity with key national security figures, particularly John Brennan, was evident. I had previously communicated with her staff in 2007 during my assignment for the U.S. Department of State. At that time, they assisted in arranging travel and accommodations while I was still operating out of headquarters in Luxembourg and the U.K., conducting a sensitive assignment on behalf of our client, the Central Intelligence Agency. I found it odd that FBI Director Mueller’s office was involved in my transportation when the FBI was not listed as a customer on the job brief.
Although she presented her assistance as casual—almost in a friendly or informal capacity—looking back, I believe Mueller’s involvement may have served a different purpose. At the time, I assumed she had taken a personal interest because I was her type – she is a closet lesbian. She was his Chief of Staff, but in retrospect, given her position overseeing passport data collection and intelligence coordination, it’s likely she was managing a layer of operational opacity around the mission I was tasked with—details of which were withheld from me. I had no reason then to suspect that a Five Eyes-aligned intelligence hub, particularly one tied into the broader Nine Eyes framework, might be engaged in activities that could undermine justice or mislead those in the field.
One detail remains vivid: the FBI repeatedly referred to me as a TAC employee, despite my correcting her (CoS) on multiple occasions in writing and during a debrief. Each time, she dismissed the clarification. At the time, I took it as a bureaucratic misunderstanding. Now, I see it differently. It may have been intentional mislabeling—either to obscure the nature of the work or to align it with a framework I was not authorized to access. Either way, her precision in so many other matters makes the repeated misidentification stand out.
When Brennan was elevated to CIA Director in March 2013, Monaco was appointed to succeed him as the White House’s top advisor on homeland security, marking a seamless transition that preserved continuity in counterterrorism operations. A FOIA release of their Outlook calendars confirms the overlap: Brennan’s schedule runs from January 20, 2009, through January 25, 2013, while Monaco’s begins on the same day, signaling a deliberate and structured handoff. As Monaco assumed Brennan’s responsibilities, she inherited his relationships and influence, managing White House briefings on the Boston Marathon bombing, overseeing drone strike legal reviews, and leading the administration’s responses to major terror plots.
Lisa Monaco’s legacy is not one of oversight, but overreach—an era in which surveillance was codified, dissent was criminalized, and secrecy was institutionalized.
As the Justice Department prepares for a potential reckoning over long-sealed Epstein case files—now under the directive of President Trump and the stewardship of Pam Bondi—there are those whose institutional footprints may soon come under scrutiny. The architecture of concealment, the choreography of classification, and the chain of command that kept specific names buried will all demand explanation. And somewhere along that chain—between redacted memos and archived case closures—sits a figure whose command over national security law, FISA compartments, and DOJ enforcement was not peripheral, but pivotal. Whether her name appears in the documents or not, the systems she stewarded are about to face the light.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The chair is never empty; it always belongs to the one who shapes your choices before you even know you had them. ~Tore Maras
The chair always serves the master, and in this case, who is the master? This master is not always a person. It can be an ideology, an algorithm, a legacy system, or even a silent cultural norm—anything capable of engineering decisions upstream of awareness. The chair is merely occupied by whoever or whatever has already predetermined the available options. Hence, “the one who shapes your choices before you even know you had them” is the true sovereign. And that’s what makes the chair dangerous—not its occupant, but its allegiance.
“Power equals Control” is not a formula, but a verdict. Control is not exerted through overt domination but through unseen influence, suggesting, filtering, and constraining perception itself. The public may see a leader in the chair, but the real authority is the force designing the script behind the scenes. The illusion is choice; the reality is choreography.
Thus, the chair doesn’t grant power—it conceals who truly holds it. And in that concealment, the master reigns.
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