Cortez Masto talks shutdown and spying, says new U.S. attorney still weighing pot cases

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The Senate has advanced a bill reopening federal agencies through Feb. 8 after Democrats relented and lifted their blockade against the legislation. (Jan. 22) AP

Count U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., among those with who hope to hear more from Dayle Elieson.

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Masto — in a wide-ranging Friday interview that touched on everything from the shutdown to government spying — said she was still looking forward to meeting and talking more with Elieson, the ex-Texas prosecutor and U.S. Attorney who now holds the fate of Nevada’s nascent legal marijuana industry.

Elieson was named as Nevada’s top federal prosecutor on Jan. 5, one day after the Trump administration issued a memo that freed up U.S. prosecutors to enforce federal laws against marijuana, even in states that have legalized use of the plant.

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The move sent shockwaves through Nevada’s rapidly growing recreational marijuana industry, raising fears that have prompted attorneys general and U.S. Attorneys in other pot-friendly states to resist the pot protection roll backs.

But Elieson has remained quiet, even around U.S. Senators.

Masto said she spoke with Nevada’s new U.S. Attorney only hours before she was appointed, using the chance to relay her concerns about the Trump administration’s new, more aggressive posture toward legal pot providers.

The freshman senator said she also encouraged Elieson to continue in the spirit of the Obama administration’s more hands-off approach to handling pot cases, though she’s not at all certain that Elieson will take that advice.

“(Elieson) said she didn’t have a position on it,” Masto said. “She wanted more time to get in and talk to the folks in the office.”

Though she opposed legalizing pot in the Silver State, Masto said she would support legislative efforts to protect Nevada’s marijuana providers, including bills meant to improve pot shops’ access to the banking system and deprive the U.S. Department of Justice of funding to enforce federal marijuana laws.

“I didn’t support (recreational marijuana),” Masto said, “but I think it’s a states' rights issue.”

Masto was not consulted by the Trump administration ahead of Eliason’s appointment — another instance, she said, of Trump’s team bucking long-observed traditions.

Both Masto and her Republican counterpart, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, have stressed that Elieson is an interim appointee. That means she can serve 120 days before being re-appointed by a court or officially nominated as a permanent U.S. attorney, pending Senate confirmation.

Masto said she hoped to be more involved if and when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions settles on another appointee.

ON WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING

Masto last week joined a minority of Democratic U.S. Senators to help reauthorize key provisions of a controversial, Bush-era spying program once widely derided by liberal leaders.

The program allows the government to collect foreigners’ emails, phone calls, text messages and other communications from American companies without a warrant, even if those foreigners are communicating with Americans.

Critics have long cautioned that the program — born out of a secret, post-9/11 surveillance effort started by the George W. Bush administration, and first authorized under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act —  also clears a path for warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens’ communications.

Proponents, including Masto, have argued it helps keep Americans safe from terrorists.

The U.S. House this month passed a bill renewing the 10-year-old program without an amendment that would have forced government officials to seek additional warrants to search for Americans’ communications.

The American Civil Liberties Union, one of several prominent critics of the legislation, said the bill would “give the Trump administration greater authority to spy on Americans, immigrants, journalists, dissidents, and everyone else.”

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., also spoke out against the measure, one she said was “riddled with loopholes.”

“I cannot support a bill that subjects the communications of Americans to warrantless searches,” Titus wrote in a statement. “The government should do its due diligence if it wants to search the 702 database for information regarding U.S. citizens.

“This bill’s provisions that address warrantless searches fall short. That is why I voted for an amendment, which Republicans defeated, that would have instituted meaningful warrant requirements relating to the communications of U.S. citizens.”

But Masto said the Senate’s bill contained enough safeguards to win her support.

“It gives law enforcement the tools to protect against terrorism,” she said. “This reauthorization included protections for Americans. It also includes oversight from Congress.

“I do know protections are in place (for Americans), and I think Congress has an ongoing obligation to provide oversight.”

Nevada’s congressional delegation split on the issue, with Masto joining U.S. Rep.’s Mark Amodei, R-Nev., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., in support of the spying program.

Heller, R-Nev., and U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., sided with Titus in opposing the legislation.

ON GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Masto on Monday joined another, smaller Senate minority opposed to ending a weekend-long government shutdown under a bipartisan deal brokered by congressional leaders.

The impasse-busting agreement overwhelmingly adopted by the Senate funds the government through Feb. 8 and reauthorizes the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years.

It does not address the issue that prompted the shutdown in the first place — long-sought deportation protections for around 700,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and have stayed here illegally.

The deal instead hinges on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s pledge to take up immigration legislation sometime over the next month.

Masto on Friday told the Reno Gazette Journal she wouldn’t support a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running if it does not include a deal to protect DREAMers, the beneficiaries of Obama’s soon-defunct Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

She followed through on that promise three days later, joining 15 other Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who voted against the agreement to reopen the government.

"Sen. McConnell has consistently proven that his word cannot be counted on," Masto wrote in a Monday statement. "(DREAMers) cannot wait. Now, it’s more important than ever to keep pressure on Leader McConnell to pass the Dream Act.

"We must fight like hell to make sure that Senator McConnell keeps his promise.”

President Donald Trump has ended an Obama-era program providing immigration protections to children brought here illegally by their parents. He gave Congress until March to restore them, and he and Republicans want any immigration deal to include money for the president’s promised wall along the Mexican border and other security measures.

Democrats’ demands to force a vote on the issue led to a Senate stalemate that prompted Friday’s government shutdown — the first since 2013, when tea party Republicans sought to use a must-pass funding bill to try to force then-President Barack Obama into delaying implementation of his marquee health care law.