Acting defense secretary orders NSA director to immediately install former GOP operative as the...

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
·
Jan 16, 2021
I wonder if that polygraph test could be holding him up.

Michael Ellis

"He has not taken up the job, however, as he needed to complete administrative procedures, including taking a polygraph test."

He was named to the position over 2 months ago.

Acting defense secretary orders NSA director to immediately install former GOP operative as the...
Michael Ellis was named in November to the position of NSA general counsel but has yet to take up the job.
washingtonpost.com

Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
2. "NSA Director Paul Nakasone was not in favor of Ellis’s selection and has sought to delay his installation."

But looks like this is the latest move:

Acting Defense Secretary Miller "ordered the director of the National Security Agency to install [Ellis] on Saturday."
5:22 PM · Jan 16, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/acting-defense-secretary-orders-nsa-director-to-immediately-install-former-gop-operative-as-the-agencys-top-lawyer/2021/01/16/b3e06a02-5837-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller ordered the director of the National Security Agency to install on Saturday a former GOP political operative as the NSA’s top lawyer, according to four individuals familiar with the matter.

It is unclear what the NSA will do. The agency and the Pentagon declined to comment.

In November, Pentagon General Counsel Paul C. Ney Jr. named Michael Ellis, then a White House official, to the position of general counsel at the NSA, a career civilian post at the government’s largest and most technologically advanced spy agency, The Post reported. He was selected after a competitive civil service competition. He has not taken up the job, however, as he needed to complete administrative procedures, including taking a polygraph test.

Reached by phone Saturday, Ellis said, “I don’t talk to the press, thank you,” and hung up.

NSA Director Paul Nakasone was not in favor of Ellis’s selection and has sought to delay his installation, according to several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Ellis’s naming, made under pressure from the White House, drew criticism from national security legal experts. It “appears to be an attempt to improperly politicize an important career position,” wrote Susan Hennessey, a former lawyer in the NSA Office of General Counsel, on Lawfare, where she is the executive editor.

*snip*

[secondwind]

1. So much DRAMA in this Administration............

[MyOwnPeace]

2. However sleazy this is....

I'm hoping that whatever happens can be "undone" by a quick executive order come Wednesday.
It certainly does seem to follow a pattern of BunkerBoy just sh*tting ALL OVER EVERYTHING before leaving town a sore loser.

[lillypaddle]

3. I have no idea what this means

We are being bombarded with information from all sides, and I've started to lose track of who the bad guys are vs the good guys. If someone who has the time, inclination, and knowledge (Nevilledog?) would you be so kind to break this down?

[Nevilledog]

4. This explains more

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Susan Hennessey
@Susan_Hennessey
The DOD Inspector General should make an immediate statement confirming whether there is an ongoing IG investigation into irregularities surrounding Ellis's selection and possible violations of civil service rules and federal law, as requested by Congress:

Senators Ask Acting DoD Inspector General to Investigate Appointment
In a letter addressed to the Department of Defense Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell, Sens. Mark Warner and Jack Reed have requested that the acting inspector general “investigate the process
lawfareblog.com
5:41 PM · Jan 16, 2021

https://www.lawfareblog.com/senators-ask-acting-dod-inspector-general-investigate-appointment-nsa-general-counsel

In a letter addressed to the Department of Defense Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell, Sens. Mark Warner and Jack Reed have requested that the acting inspector general “investigate the process for the recent selection” of the newly selected General Counsel to the National Security Agency (NSA).

The letter lists three reasons for opening an investigation including: “press accounts” that have implicated the White House’s interference in “what is supposed to be a merit-based, apolitical civil service position”; the timing of the selection “less than a week following the Presidential election and mere moments after the sitting Secretary of Defense had been fired”; and the selectee’s lack of experience—he graduated law school in 2011 and has been, in the senator’s account, “limited to political roles on Capitol Hill and in the White House National Security Council.” Sens. Warner, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Reed, Ranking Member on the Armed Services Committee, ask Acting Inspector General O’Donell to respond to eight questions including: “Were safeguards to prevent political appointees from inappropriately ‘burrowing’ into the civil service applied?”

[lillypaddle]

5. Thanks, that helps a lot

Can't even imagine where we'd be if he had won the election. Fucked. That's where we'd be, even more fucked than we are now. Thanks Nevilledog.

[triron]

15. That is a huge understatement.

[struggle4progress]

6. ... Ellis previously was chief counsel to Rep. Devin Nunes ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/acting-defense-secretary-orders-nsa-director-to-immediately-install-former-gop-operative-as-the-agencys-top-lawyer/2021/01/16/b3e06a02-5837-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

[dalton99a]

7. +1

[Captain Zero]

16. oh hell no

nt

[lindysalsagal]

8. Why would the gangster need his own operative in the national

Security agency? To prevent any evidence surrounding national security leaving the office? To stonewall investigations? Hmmm?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. Sleazy to the end

[dalton99a]

10. Biden should order his removal on Wednesday.

[MineralMan]

11. Should read, "Departing acting Defense Secretary says some shit..."

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Putin Trump connection protection.

[wishstar]

13. Connected to My Pillow Guy's bucket list as part of the martial law attempted coup plan

since Michael Ellis was attorney with Devin Nunes whose staffer was Kash Patel that Pillow Guy, Meadows and Trump wanted to install as CIA director.

[dalton99a]

14. +1

[Captain Zero]

17. they have not done all the shredding they wanted to do....

nt