The Army general nominated to lead the National Security Agency was asked repeatedly this month about how he would use the agency’s vast spying powers.

Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd kept his answers vague.

He claimed to know little about a two-decade debate over “backdoor” searches on Americans. He dodged a question about whether the NSA should participate in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on antifa. And when asked about whether he would illegally target Americans, he responded curtly that he would follow the law.

The backdoor searches are among one of the most controversial issues about NSA spying. Under current law, the federal government is allowed to search for information on U.S. citizens and residents in the vast troves of communications the NSA has collected while searching for foreign threats.

“Wyden strongly believes the government should get a warrant before searching for and viewing Americans’ communications.”

Privacy advocates have long argued that those backdoor searches are a huge privacy violation, pointing to the thousands of times the FBI has misused its backdoor search authority.

The government’s authority to conduct such searches expires in April. Rudd said in a written questionnaire that he did not know much about the law that........

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