Washington – President-elect Donald Trump is considering plans to restructure and slim down a top U.S. intelligence agency, a person familiar with the discussions said Thursday. The move comes after Trump questioned the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered with the presidential election on his behalf.
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Trump still is expected to name a Director of National Intelligence, but he is said to be looking at ways to reorganize the agency. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created after the Sept. 11 attacks to coordinate other U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Trump also is said to be considering changes at the CIA.
Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer denied Thursday that Trump was considering “restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure.” Spicer did not specifically address possible changes to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump was looking at changes to the intelligence agency. The person familiar with the plans said Trump was not intending to gut any intelligence agency, but was looking for ways to streamline operations and improve efficiency. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats is a leading candidate for the post but is also under consideration for an ambassadorship. Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO who ran against Trump in the Republican primary, has also been considered for the job.
Since winning the election, Trump has publicly challenged U.S. intelligence officials’ conclusion that Russia meddled in the presidential race to bolster his prospects. A full intelligence report on the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other groups arrived Thursday at the White House.
Trump was scheduled to be briefed on the report Friday in New York. CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and outgoing DNI James Clapper were among those expected to lay out the report’s evidence and conclusions to the president elect.
Clapper was testifying about the Russian hacking Thursday on Capitol Hill. Asked by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., if his office had discussed a restructuring of his department with the Trump transition team, Clapper said, “No, we have not.”
Trump has questioned Russia’s involvement and challenged the intelligence community’s track record, particularly the information that led to the Iraq war. On Wednesday, he appeared to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose organization publicly released the hacked Democratic emails. Trump noted in a tweet that Assange said he had not received the materials from Russia.
Trump shifted course Thursday, saying it was “wrong” to say he was in agreement with Assange, adding that he had simply repeated what the WikiLeaks head said. Trump disputed that he was against the intelligence community, writing, “in fact I am a big fan!”
There is no question that we need to take a fresh look at the CIA and intelligence community. It has failed us too many times including the war in Iraq. The AP is trying to spin this as an act of vengeance on Trump’s behalf against the agency for the Russia fiasco. But its really irrespectable of that. We all voted for the man because we want to shake up Washington. Its time to run the government like a business. In the same way that Trump’s campaign successfully focused on the greatest IRR and ROI for every dollar spent so too must we apply that concept to our intelligence community. The universe is comprised of limited resources. If we want to make America great again we need to utilize our resources so that we gain the largest utility from it. And that’s what business men do.
About time! #MAGA
It’s an established fact that our multiple intelligence agencies overlap and compete with each other.