Coats tapped for top intelligence post
WA S H I N G TO N — P r e s i - dent-elect Donald Trump has selected former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats as director of national intelligence, a role that would thrust Coats into the leadership of the intelligence community that Trump has publicly challenged, a person with knowledge of the decision said Thursday.
C o a t s , a R e p u b l i c a n , served as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee before retiring from Congress last year. If confirmed by the Senate, he would oversee the umbrella offiffice created after 9/11 to improve coordination of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies.
The person with knowledge of Trump’s decision was not authorized to discuss the pick publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Since winning the election, Trump has repeatedly questioned intelligence offifficials’ assessments that Russia interfered with the election on his behalf. Senior intelligence officials will brief Trump on Friday on the fifindings of a full report ordered by President Barack Obama into the Russian hacking of Democratic groups.
Against that backdrop, Trump has been considering ways to reorganize intelligence agencies to streamline operations and improve effifficiency. Transition offifficials have been looking at changes at both ODNI and the CIA, but those plans are said not to be aimed at gutting the intelligence agencies or hampering their capa- bilities.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Wednesday night that Trump was considering changes at the intelligence agenc i es. Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer disputed the report Thursday morning.
“There is no truth to this idea of restruc turing the i n t e l l i ge n c e c o mmunit y infrastructure. It is 100 percent false,” Spicer said.
T h e C I A d e c l i n e d t o comment on the potential changes. Outgoing National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate panel Thursday that his offiffice has not been engaged in such discussions with the Trump transition team. He noted that lawmakers created his office and will have some voice in approving any broad changes to it.
“Congress, I think, gets a vote here,” said Clapper.
Trump’s administration wouldn’t be the fifirst to initiate reforms in the intelligence community.
In 2015, CIA Director John Brennan ordered sweeping changes to the agency to make its leaders more accountable and to close intelligence gaps amid concern about the agency’s limited insights into a series of major global developments. The aim was to break down barriers between the CIA’s operational and analytical arms.
Coats’ nomination is likely to soothe those who fear Tr ump wil l s i g ni f i c a nt l y overhaul the intelligence communit y. The 73- yearold is a Capitol Hill veteran who served eight years in the House before moving to the Senate in 1989 to take Dan Quayle’s place when he became vice president. He stayed in the Senate until 1998, then left to become a lobbyist.
After a stint as ambassador to Germany under President George W. Bush, Coats joined the high-powered Washington law fifirm of King & Spalding.
C o a t s , w h o e a r n e d $ 600,000 i n hi s f i nal 1 3 months at King & Spalding, downplayed his lobbying work when he returned to Indiana for a successful Senate comeback bid in 2010. He served one term and did not seek re-election last year.