The National Security Division was created under Section 506 of the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization,[1] which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on March 9, 2006.

Matthew G. Olsen, the current AAG-NS, was confirmed to the role with the advice and consent of the Senate.

[5] Previously, John Demers, the AAG-NS appointed under President Donald Trump, continued to serve under the incoming President Joe Biden administration, but he left the role in June 2021 in the wake of news reports that the Justice officials had seized the phone records of Congressional members and staff.

In December 2019, Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the DoJ released a report accusing the Division of lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in some of its applications for wiretaps.

[7][8] The Presiding Judge of the Court subsequently ordered the Division to "inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application.