In a move denounced by security and legal experts acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has ordered the National Security Agency to install Michael Ellis, a Trump loyalist, former chief counsel to GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, and Republican political operative, as the NSA's top lawyer. The role is a civil service position, not one in which a political nominee is legally allowed to be placed.

Miller ordered the NSA chief, General Paul Nakasone, to install Ellis by Saturday at 6 PM. National security experts were relieved when it appeared Nakasone had refused, but on Sunday The Washington Post and CNN both reported Ellis will be the agency's general counsel.

"Mr. Ellis accepted his final job offer yesterday afternoon," the NSA said in a statement Sunday, the Post reports, which is just three days before Trump will no longer be president. "NSA is moving forward with his employment."

Susan Hennessey, a former Intelligence Community attorney who is now a CNN National Security and Legal Analyst, on Saturday basted the Trump administration's 11th hour attempt to subvert the process and blasted Ellis himself as "bad bad news."


On Sunday, after news broke that Ellis will be installed, Hennessey noted that he is now "entirely incapable of credibly leading the office or performing the functions of the job."



She also suggested Ellis is not qualified:



Also on Sunday former SDNY federal prosecutor and former Dept. of Justice Inspector General Michael Bromwich tweeted the "subversion of government continues. No previous lame duck Administration would have attempted something like this. This guy should be terminated on Day 1," he said, referring to Ellis.

In 2017 Ellis, who worked in the White House Counsel's office, was responsible leaking intelligence to Rep. Devin Nunes that kicked off Trump's lies that his "wires" had been "tapped."

The New York Times reported in March of that year that Ellis leaked "intelligence reports that showed that President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies."

More reactions:

Former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel:



Talking Points Memo founder and publisher Josh Marshall:



 
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