Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, who usually signed off on FISA applications for the Justice Department before they go to the FISA court, receives an application for a surveillance order with no indication from where the lead came. He refuses to sign off on it. "When Thompson asked [his deputy] for his legal opinion on signing these mysterious new warrants, his answer was firm: Don’t do it.” From then on, the administration gets someone else to sign off on FISA applications for the Justice Department.