The National Security Agency (NSA) made a former GOP police officer a top attorney a few days earlier President Trump
Donald Trump Facebook Temporarily Bans Ads For Gun Accessories After Capitol Riots Sasse, In Ardent Opinion, Says QAnon Destroys GOP Section 230 That Worked After The Uprising, But Not Before: How To Regulate Social Media MORE leaves office, reportedly on the orders of Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.
An NSA spokesperson confirmed that the agency installed Michael Ellis, a member of the National Security Council (NSC), as general counsel.
The Washington Post reported that Miller ordered NSA Director Paul Nakasone to elevate Ellis to General Counsel to do so before 6 p.m. Saturday.
“Mr. Ellis accepted his latest job offer yesterday afternoon,” an NSA spokesman told The Hill in a Sunday statement. “NSA is moving forward with its job.”
Paul Ney, the Pentagon’s General Counsel, announced in November that Ellis would become the NSA’s General Counsel, but he had not yet started due to administrative proceedings.
Ellis, a former chief counsel to Rep. Devin Nunes
Devin Gerald Nunes CIA chief threatened to resign over push to install Trump loyalist as deputy: Bill Belichick report rejects Trump’s Medal of Freedom Trump gives Medal of Freedom to roommate Jim Jordan MORE (R-Calif.) Who later joined the White House will begin in the role Tuesday, a well-known source told CNN.
Installation comes days before the elected president Joe Biden
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Sources told the Times and the Post that Nakasone was not in favor of appointing Ellis over other career officials at the agency.
The NSA director and others reportedly feared that the White House was trying to “dig” Ellis into orbit against a policy that would prevent a government from putting a police officer in civilian career positions before power is handed over.
But a U.S. official told the Post that the Office of Personnel Management told Nakasone that the policy did not apply to employees of the intelligence community.
A Defense Department spokesman said the department’s general counsel serves as “the sole selection position” for the NSA’s general counsel.
“The director of the NSA does not select or approve candidates for the position of the NSA General Counsel,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“Once a candidate has been selected through the merit system, has been offered and fulfills the requirements to enter the position, it exposes the Department, Agency and senior leadership to claims for a violation of the principles of the merit system. and processes designed to protect participants in such selections, ”the statement added.
“To be clear, congressional or media interest in a particular recruitment drive is not justification under the merit system principles and process to delay the placement of a selected qualified individual in a position,” it concluded.
When Ellis was reached by phone, he told the Post, “I’m not talking to the press, thank you,” and hung up.
Ellis, who joined the White House in 2017 and became a lawyer with the NSC in 2019, rejected an official’s decision to vacate the former national security adviser John Bolton
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