GOP operative with ties to election conspiracy theorists installed at Trump spy agency

National Intelligence acting director Bill Pulte has installed as his chief of staff a woman who worked on election-related schemes for the Republican National Committee, according to former U.S. officials.

“Christina Norton, the former R.N.C. official, has also served as Bill Pulte’s chief of staff at the federal housing agency he leads. But much of her recent work for the G.O.P. has centered on election issues, including efforts to monitor voting sites during the 2024 presidential election,” reports the New York Times.

While at the R.N.C., the Times reports Norton oversaw a poll watcher program that included conservative conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, who helped spread the “Pizzagate” stories about child abuse at a restaurant in Washington.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said the mission of Pulte’s office was supposed to be countering foreign threats, not importing “election denialism into the intelligence community.”

“If reports are true that Bill Pulte, whose installation as acting D.N.I. already raises serious legal questions, is bringing a former senior R.N.C. official who cavorted with election deniers and conspiracy theories into O.D.N.I. as his chief of staff, Americans have every reason to fear that this administration is once again eroding the wall between our intelligence agencies and domestic elections,” The Times reports Warner saying in a statement.

Rep Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee had his own issues with the appointment, saying Pulte’s office is supposed to ensure “they report on legitimate foreign threats to elections, not [President]Donald Trump’s imaginary ones.”

“Trump was explicit when he appointed Bill Pulte to a job he had no qualifications for that he had elections in mind,” Himes said in a statement.

CNN reported Pulte came into his appointed post ready to fire people, and began "asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them.”

Juliette Kayyem, CNN's senior national security analyst and ex-assistant secretary of Homeland Security said Pulte was “there for one reason, and that is to satisfy the president's agenda of politicizing the intelligence community.”

“It's not [just] a personal opinion,” Kayyem added. “By statute, Bill Pulte is not qualified for this position. The Director of National Intelligence is supposed to come from the intelligence community. Bill Pulte is a businessman with strong ties to MAGA and to Trump."