The Cloud Forming Over America's Spies

A retired C.I.A. officer sees danger ahead for the independence and political impartiality of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies if Trump’s choice for director of national intelligence is confirmed.

The appointment in February of Richard Grenell, a political operative and Donald Trump loyalist, as acting director of national intelligence after the renomination of former Congressman John Ratcliffe to permanently fill the position once he is confirmed, has many current and former intelligence professionals deeply concerned.

I am among them, if only because we cannot trust the judgments of a president who so often overrides the wisdom of professional intelligence analysts, prosecutors and medical authorities, even during a calamity.

Last week, for example, on the same day that the office of the director of national intelligence (D.N.I. for short) released a public statement affirming the scientific community’s consensus that “the Covid-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified,” The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was pressing intelligence officials to look for evidence to prove otherwise — perhaps that it originated in a Chinese laboratory. Not coincidentally, acting director Grenell, a prolific Twitter user, failed to sign his own intelligence community’s official position.

I take solace in my confidence that Mr. Trump will learn, even after the Senate confirms Mr. Ratcliffe and the president replaces still more professionals with less capable political loyalists, that gagging the intelligence community will be far more difficult than hushing the Justice Department or overriding the wisdom of our medical institutions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/opinion/trump-grenell-ratcliffe.html