20 Feb 2020 6:08 pm
And the other shoe has dropped.Misty » 19 Feb 2020 5:39 pm » wrote:
Trump Expected to Name Richard Grenell as Acting Head of Intelligence
The move would place a Trump loyalist atop the intelligence agencies long viewed skeptically by the White House.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/us/p ... Wfeoq7OYgL
So he is installing a sycophant with no intelligence experience (Richard Grenell) in order to hide intelligence from Congress.Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.
The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said.
Mr. Trump cited the presence in the briefing of Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who led the impeachment proceedings against him, as a particular irritant.
During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that he has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security.
Some intelligence officials viewed the briefing as a tactical error, saying that had the official who delivered the conclusion spoken less pointedly or left it out, they would have avoided angering the Republicans.
That intelligence official, Shelby Pierson, is an aide to Mr. Maguire who has a reputation of delivering intelligence in somewhat blunt terms.
The president announced on Wednesday that he was replacing Mr. Maguire with Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany and long an aggressively vocal Trump supporter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/p ... ogin-email