Christopher Miller, who just two days earlier said he could not wait to leave his job, ordered the NSA chief to install Michael Ellis as chief councilor on Saturday at 6 p.m., but Genl. Paul Nakasone, director of the NSA, is not acting by the deadline given, so it is unclear what Miller or the White House would do.
Ellis was first nominated for the post in early November, just two days after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election and amid a political purge of various agencies, including the Department of Defense.
The Pentagon declined to comment. The story was first reported by the Washington Post.
But the installation of Ellis remained, according to the Washington Post, due to administrative procedures, including the need for a polygraph test, which Miller put into effect in the waning days of Trump’s four years in office.
Within days of Ellis being elected to the post in November, shortly after President Donald Trump fired then-Defense Minister Mark Esper via Twitter, the Democratic sense. Mark Warner and Jack Reed requested an investigation by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general. a letter, “The combination of timing, comparative lack of experience of the candidate, the reported qualifications of the other finalists and press reports on involvement in the White House create a perception that political influence or considerations play an undue role in merit. could have played- based selection process for public service. “
Before joining the Trump administration, Ellis was the chief executive of California Representative Devin Nunes, one of Trump’s strongest supporters. Ellis then becomes an advocate at the National Security Council and refuses to testify as part of the House’s 2019 indictment. In March 2020, Ellis becomes the senior director of intelligence at the NSC, joining other Trump loyalists in key intelligence positions.
But the attempt to move Ellis to the NSA is different, because the attorney general at the country’s largest intelligence agency is a civil servant, not a political appointment. That makes Ellis harder to fire once the Biden government comes in, the sources said, adding that the strategy is called ‘burrowing’.
Ellis said, “I’m not talking to the press, thank you,” and hung up when reached by the Washington Post. CNN could not reach Ellis.
Susan Hennessey, a former NSA lawyer and CNN’s legal and national security analyst, shrugged off the decision to bring Ellis to power in the Trump administration’s last weekend.
“At this point, no one should extend this selection process to the benefit of the doubt. By all accounts, the Trump administration is violating public service rules and politicizing an apolitical role. If Ellis is installed tonight, Biden must remove him on Day One,”
she wrote on Twitter.
The NSA’s general council is not a position confirmed by the Senate, Hennessey explained in her Lawfare blog in November, removing a step from the congressional oversight that exists for roles such as general council of the CIA, the Pentagon or the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The purpose of this process was to remove political prejudices in the nomination of a candidate for one of the key roles at the NSA.
“This is a very difficult, very important task and we have a process to ensure that only qualified individuals are in the role * BECAUSE it is necessary for the national security of the United States,”
Hennessey wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
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