WASHINGTON — President Trump nominated on Wednesday a onetime aide to one in every of his prime congressional allies to function the inspector comm
WASHINGTON — President Trump nominated on Wednesday a onetime aide to one in every of his prime congressional allies to function the inspector common of the intelligence group, succeeding a former official who performed a job in revealing the Ukraine whistle-blower grievance that prompted impeachment proceedings and was later fired.
The nominee, Allen Robert Souza, who should be confirmed by the Senate, is a senior intelligence official on the Nationwide Safety Council employees who beforehand served on the intelligence employees of Consultant Devin Nunes, Republican of California and one of many president’s fiercest supporters on Capitol Hill.
The inspector common is historically meant to be an apolitical watchdog of the nation’s spy companies. The official who beforehand held the job, Michael Atkinson, was swept up within the Ukraine affair when the whistle-blower, a C.I.A. officer who anonymously raised issues about Mr. Trump’s July 2019 name with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, filed his grievance to Mr. Atkinson. He then clashed with the Justice Division about whether or not he might legally ahead the grievance to Congress.
Congress in the end obtained the grievance, prompting the Home inquiry into Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and his impeachment.
The Republican-led Senate acquitted Mr. Trump, and within the ensuing weeks he moved to filter out a number of inspectors common or different officers deemed insufficiently loyal, together with Mr. Atkinson, who was dismissed in April. Although presidents appoint inspectors common, they’re meant to have a level of independence to research claims of waste, fraud and abuse.
Earlier than engaged on the Nationwide Safety Council employees, Mr. Souza was the minority employees director and common counsel for the Home Intelligence Committee, for which Mr. Nunes leads the Republican minority.
Mr. Nunes has helped place members of his employees in key nationwide safety and intelligence jobs within the Trump administration, together with Michael Ellis, who now leads the Nationwide Safety Council intelligence crew, and Kash Patel, who has served in senior posts on the council and within the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence.
Critics have seen Mr. Nunes’s aides as deeply ideological, in giant measure as a result of they seen the investigation into Russian affect within the 2016 election as a liberal plot to undermine Mr. Trump. Because the minority employees director, Mr. Souza helped form the Republican assault on the report by Robert S. Mueller III, the particular counsel investigating Russian interference in 2016 and any hyperlinks to the Trump marketing campaign.
The appointment of extra of Mr. Nunes’s aides to senior positions contained in the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence will most definitely be seen by critics as an additional politicization of the workplace.
The director of nationwide intelligence, John Ratcliffe, is a former Home member who served on the Intelligence Committee and was an outspoken defender of Mr. Trump whereas in Congress. Mr. Souza was the employees director when Mr. Ratcliffe was on the committee.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Ratcliffe didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.