At the Pentagon, Miller was angry because the agency’s leadership had for months the delivery of Mr. Ellis was delayed, despite going through the standard hiring process and being selected for the job, a senior U.S. official said. So Mr. Miller the agency orders Mr. Ellis to swear in, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
Mr Ellis is seen as a smart lawyer. But the pressure to install him in a permanent government job surprised some. According to former officials, he is likely to enter the office of the General Council under a great deal of suspicion and will wage an uphill battle to win the trust of General Nakasone.
Mr. Ellis will be a member of the Senior Executive Service, a civil service that has strong protection against gunfire. However, civil servants can easily be moved to the Department of Defense so that he can get a legal job elsewhere in the vast department, for example, to oversee compliance with environmental regulations at a remote military base.
When he was on the intelligence committee, Mr. Ellis a trusted adviser to Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California. Mr. Ellis has held various roles in the Trump administration, including as an advocate for the National Security Council and thereafter as senior director of intelligence in the White House.
In the White House, Mr. Ellis the decision of a career officer to read the book of mr. Bolton for publication clearance, endorsed, although he had no formal training in the classification of national security information. The Department of Justice, under pressure from President Trump, has sued Mr. To recover Bolton to recover his profits from the book.
A judge overseeing the case on Thursday issued a ruling that makes it likely that Bolton lawyer Charles J. Cooper can question White House officials like Ellis whether the classification decisions were taken in good faith. Sou mnr. Ellis, taking over as general counsel for at least a while, may be able to stop the evidence.
Early in the period of mr. Trump called Mr. Ellis mnr. Nunes’ intelligence reports provide that employees of Mr. Trump has been taken into US oversight by U.S. intelligence agencies. The material is the core of mr. Trump’s regular accusation that the Obama administration spied on his campaign.