He then attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School, graduating in 1991 with a Juris Doctor and Order of the Coif honors.

[2] In April 2016 Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Contreras to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a term starting May 19, 2016.

[6] On November 17, 2016, Contreras dismissed a lawsuit against U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seeking to compel a vote on the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland, finding that the plaintiff, who had simply alleged he was a voter, had no standing to sue.

[7] In 2017 Contreras was randomly assigned the case of United States of America v. Michael T. Flynn, the former National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump.

[8] Contreras accepted Flynn's guilty plea to one count of making false statements to the FBI in the course of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

[10] According to several reputable sources, text messages show that Peter Strzok, a veteran FBI counterintelligence official who worked on the Flynn case as part of Mueller's team, knew Contreras.