Trump loyalist Richard Grenell has been named acting director of national intelligence, as the president again circumvents Senate approval with the placement of a crony in a key position.
Grenell, most recently the underachieving ambassador to Germany, has no experience in intelligence.
This is the second acting director the president has named to the role since the resignation of Dan Coats, notes Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“The intelligence community deserves stability and an experienced individual to lead them in a time of massive national and global security challenges,” Warner said. “And at a time when the integrity and independence of the Department of Justice has been called into grave question, now more than ever our country needs a Senate-confirmed intelligence director who will provide the best intelligence and analysis, regardless of whether or not it’s expedient for the President who has appointed him.
“As Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I remain committed to robust, bipartisan oversight of the nation’s intelligence community, up to and including the DNI, and ensuring that the work of our intelligence professionals is never interfered with or manipulated for political ends,” Warner said.
Grenell, whose main qualification for anything in TrumpWorld is his tenure as a Fox News contributor, will replace Joseph Maguire, whose term as acting director is up on March 11, and who has been under fire on the inside because he told the House Intelligence Committee during its Ukraine investigation that the whistleblower whose report initiated the inquiry “did the right thing.”
Expect him to be perp-walked out on March 11.
The law that Trump is working to circumvent allows him to name an acting director for 210 days without the need for Senate approval, so check back in October for the next Fox News burnout who gets access to the nation’s secrets.
Story by Chris Graham
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