The Trump administration’s war on the so-called “deep state” has achieved some success.
This isn’t the stuff of conspiracy theories. It’s the stuff of congressional hearings and presidential nominations. There is an ongoing struggle for control of the U.S. intelligence community, and Trump has made real but limited progress in bending the intelligence agencies to his will.
The Battle for ODNI
How so? Trump is slowly gaining control of the Office of Director of National Intelligence. ODNI was created after 9/11 to centralize intelligence collection and analysis government-wide. Compared to the CIA, FBI, and NSA, ODNI is small and new but, as the oversight office of the U.S. intelligence community, it has extensive authority over the secret sectors of the U.S. government.
Trump’s director is John Ratcliffe, former Texas Congressman and Trump loyalist, with no intelligence experience.
Trump fired ODNI inspector general Michael Atkinson for forwarding the Ukraine whistleblower’s complaint to Congress. Atkinson’s replacement is a Trump loyalist.
William Evarina, chief ODNI’s counterintelligence branch, gave testimony about Russia’s election-related activities that Democrats said was “meaningless.”
Now the White House seeks to install a disciple of Attorney General Bill Barr, as the top lawyer at ODNI. His name is Patrick Hovakimian.
As Trump and Barr search for ways to rescues Trump’s faltering re-election prospects, Hovakimian stands really to provide legal justification for whatever. If he is confirmed, Trump and Barr would be one step closer to controlling the official legality of U.S. intelligence operations.
‘A Smokescreen’
In congressional testimony last week, Hovakimian gave legal cover to what Senator Ron Wyden called “the essentially fascist” incursion of federal law enforcement officers into Portland
From Cipher Brief:
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who announced he had told Hovakimian that he was going to raise the Portland situation, asked, “Do you believe Federal forces can control American cities over the objections of the state and local officials and away from Federal Buildings?”
Hovakimian, clearly reading from a prepared paper, responded saying, “I understand Portland is your hometown and there’s a lot going on there now. So, I do extend my best wishes to your friends and family and constituents there. Senator,I will stand firm on the idea that Americans’ right to free speech, free assembly under the First Amendment are absolutely sacrosanct, neither law enforcement nor the intelligence community should target or surveil Americans who are engaged in that activity that is entirely protected by the First Amendment. This is a bedrock principle of democracy and one that I stand by. Senator, peaceful protest is one thing and violence is another, and from where I sit law enforcement helping to quell violence…”
At that point Wyden said, “Nobody is condoning violence and I’ve repeatedly said that.” He went on to question whether the claim of violence is “a smokescreen for the federal takeover of local authority and local law enforcement.”
Hovakimian called the Portland situation “volatile” and when he again said, “I do extend my best wishes to your constituents there.” Wyden snapped back saying, “My constituents are interested in more than your best wishes. What they want to know is that these forces can’t go wherever they want over the objections of local authorities.”
Hovakimian responded, “The department is committed to enforcing the law while respecting the Constitutional rights of all people.”
Their exchanges continued and at the end Wyden called what was occurring in Portland “essentially fascist practices” and stated that Hovakimian’s views were “not consistent with the position to which you have been nominated and I intend to oppose his nomination.”
Simply put, this nomination is a small-scale test of Trump’s attempt to take over the U.S. intelligence community. Will Congress object?
Source: Hovakimian’s Quest for Approval
