News Opinons Politics

NSC Staffer and FISA Abuse Report Author Becomes Top Aide To Acting Spy Chief Richard Grenell

A National Security Council staffer made the jump over to the intelligence community, according to multiple reports.

Kash Patel, who previously served as an aid to the House Intelligence Committee’s Devin Nunes, was appointed to be a senior adviser to new acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.

A source told CBS News that there is a new mandate to clean house, including a “top to bottom” review of ODNI operations that have expanded since 2005.


President Trump announced on Wednesday that Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and a Trump loyalist, would replace Joseph Maguire as acting DNI.

Democrats raised concerns about Grenell being a political appointee without sufficient background in intelligence. Grenell said he won’t be nominated to take on the spy chief role permanently.


Texas National Guard members removed from 60-day Illinois deployment for failing ‘mission requirements’
Newlyweds found dead days before celebrating their first anniversary as police probe possible murder-suicide
LISTEN: Man leaves disturbing voicemail for ICE agents: ‘Hope they’re doxxed’
White House rips ‘imbecilic buffoon’ Tim Walz after Trump tariff criticism
Weekly Straw Poll: Vance Holds a Commanding Lead, But Other Candidates Get a Boost
Backfire: Biden Finally Responds to Peace Deal, But with Unexpected Admission That He Failed on Everything
Watch: Trump’s Joke Cracks Up Knesset but Horrifies Dems After Israeli Security Forced to Crush Leftist Disrupters
Johnson turns up volume on Democrats in shutdown standoff, telling them to ‘bring it’
California officials address growing conspiracy theories tied to Proposition 50 ballots
Judge sides with Comey after DOJ sought to limit his discovery access
Alec and Stephen Baldwin Involved in Head-on Car Crash
Defiant Letitia James rallies with far-left ally Mamdani after indictment, vows to keep fighting Trump
Nation’s only two 2025 races for governor rocked with three weeks until Election Day
Suspect in arson attack at Pennsylvania governor’s mansion pleads guilty
Hamas Carries Out Wave of Public Executions in Bid to ‘Reestablish its Rule’ in Gaza

As a staff member on the House Intelligence Committee, Patel was a primary author of a Republican memo released in early 2018 on alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses against Carter Page, a member of the Trump 2016 campaign. The Justice Department inspector general conducted an investigation, and in a report released in December said there were at least 17 “significant errors or omissions” in the Page FISA applications. The Justice Department determined that at least two of the four orders targeting Page were not valid.

See also  Trump bets on Kushner and Witkoff to see through Israel and Hamas peace deal

Patel later became the senior counterterrorism director for the National Security Council and late last year got wrapped up into the House Democrats’ impeachment investigation. He denied being a back channel to Trump on Ukraine, as one witness suggested, and filed a $25 million libel lawsuit against Politico over reporting that claimed he was feeding Trump information about Ukraine.

Patel also targeted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, tying him to the leaks from the closed-door hearings during the impeachment investigation into Trump. The lawsuit claimed Politico tried to “destroy Kash’s reputation” to perpetuate “Schiff’s baseless Ukrainian quid pro quo hoax.”

Story cited here.

Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter