New acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has already asked for access to information about Russian interference in the 2020 election from intelligence agencies under his watch, the New York Times reports.
As overseer of the nation’s constituent 17 intelligence agencies, Grenell has oversight authority and the ability to access whatever information he wants. The job in part demands that he then brief the President.
Grenell also installed a deputy, Kash Patel, a former aide to Re. Devin Nunes (R-CA) with a history spreading conspiracy theories favored by the President. Patel wrote a 2018 memo baselessly accusing the Justice Department of abusing its powers to spy on the Trump campaign.
Grenell’s appointment and installation of Patel has stoked fears that he will use the role to run intelligence gathered by the government through a political filter.
Trump allegedly picked Grenell to replace his predecessor Joseph Maguire after a subordinate of Maguire’s told House lawmakers in a briefing that Russia was supporting the President in his 2020 reelection bid.
The New York Times’s report suggests that Grenell has requested the intelligence underpinning the briefing, given to the House Intelligence Committee.
The New York Times also reported that an outgoing career official, replaced by Patel, included a reference in his departing note to the “uncertainties that come with change.”
This is why he was hired, to get the intelligence and then come up with the “alternate facts” that show the Russians are actually trying to help the Democrats win, not Trump. Or, just to cover up the entire thing, probably by using investigations of the intelligence community itself to show that it is working against Trump and making up stories about the Russians. It’s the same playbook they have been running for years now, and now they have someone who controls all the information so they can control the narrative. And, on top of that, they can crush anyone who tries to blow the whistle and keep them away form Congress.
This whole series of events, combined with Barr requiring his permission to start any investigations of a presidential campaign, is really dangerous…it’s laying the foundation to cheat in the election, and then refuse to accept the results if Trump loses. Add in what is likely to be real Russian interference, perhaps by changing votes this time around, and the entire thing may end up as a huge mess this fall. If Trump can manage to make the election as horrific as possible, I can see him invalidating the entire thing and keeping himself in office no matter what the result said…and he’ll have the Republican party and enough Americans behind him to make it happen. Truly, this is where we are headed, it’s going to take a monumental effort by Americans who are sick of this crap to make sure Trump and the Republicans lose, and then force them to accept the loss.
Oh.
President Donald Trump’s new acting intelligence director, Richard Grenell, used to do consulting work on behalf of an Eastern European oligarch who is now a fugitive and was recently barred from entering the U.S. under anti-corruption sanctions imposed last month by the State Department.
In 2016, Grenell wrote several articles defending the oligarch, a Moldovan politician named Vladimir Plahotniuc, but did not disclose that he was being paid, according to records and interviews. Grenell also did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which generally requires people to disclose work in the U.S. on behalf of foreign politicians.
…And the shredders will be going 24/7 all weekend…
I believe it may have been stated here before, but Moldova, et al, may as well be considered Russia.
Any chance Grenell turns out to be a Russian foreign agent?
If Trump has the choice of a qualified person for any position between someone qualified or a shithead, he picks shithead every time.