White House plans to have Trump ally review intel agencies
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to assign a New York billionaire to lead a broad review of U.S. intelligence agencies, according to administration officials, an effort that members of the intelligence community fear could curtail their independence and reduce the flow of information that contradicts the president’s worldview.
The possible role for Stephen A. Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, has met fierce resistance among intelligence officials already on edge because of the criticism the intelligence community has received from Trump during the campaign and since he became president. On Wednesday, Trump blamed leaks from the intelligence community for the departure of Michael T. Flynn, his national security adviser, whose resignation he requested.
There has been no announcement of Feinberg’s job, which would be based in the White House, but he recently told his company’s shareholders that he was in discussions to join the Trump administration. He is a member of Trump’s economic advisory council.
Feinberg, who has close ties to Stephen Bannon, who is Trump’s chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, declined to comment on his possible position. The White House also would not comment.
Bringing Feinberg into the administration to conduct the review is seen as a way of injecting a Trump loyalist into a world the White House views with suspicion. But top intelligence officials fear that Feinberg is being groomed for a high position in one of the intelligence agencies.
Bannon and Kushner, according to current and former intelligence officials and Republican lawmakers, had at one point considered Feinberg for either director of national intelligence or chief of the CIA’s clandestine service, a role that is normally reserved for career intelligence officers, not friends of the president. Feinberg’s only experience with national security matters is his firm’s stakes in a private security company and two gunmakers.
On an array of issues — including the Iran nuclear deal, the utility of NATO, and how best to combat Islamist militancy — much of the information and analysis produced by U.S. intelligence agencies contradicts the positions of the new administration. The divide is starkest when it comes to Russia and President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised both during and after his campaign.
Reports that Feinberg was under consideration to run the clandestine service rocked the intelligence community in recent weeks, raising the prospect of direct White House control over America’s spies at a time when Trump’s ties to Putin are under investigation by the FBI and congressional committees.