The National Security Agency is “moving forward” to install Michael Ellis, a former GOP political operative and White House official, as the agency’s top lawyer, the agency said Sunday.
The announcement came a day after acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller ordered the NSA director, Gen. Paul Nakasone, to immediately place Ellis in position as the agency’s general counsel.
Ellis had been selected for the job in November by the Pentagon general counsel after a civil service competition. But Nakasone was not in favor of Ellis’s selection and sought to delay his installation, according to several people familiar with the issue, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
Though Nakasone is not the hiring authority — the decision is made by the Pentagon general counsel — by tradition the NSA director weighs in on the selection.
“Mr. Ellis accepted his final job offer yesterday afternoon,” the NSA said in a statement Sunday. “NSA is moving forward with his employment.”
The Pentagon declined to comment.
Ellis was selected under pressure from the White House, people familiar with the matter said at the time. The move drew criticism from national security legal experts as an attempt to politicize a career position.
White House official and former GOP political operative named as NSA general counsel
It comes just a few days before President Trump leaves office, and complicates the Biden administration’s options for immediately replacing him, former officials said.
There have also been concerns about Ellis’s qualifications for the job, according to several people. One individual said those issues included the possibility that he was picked over candidates who scored higher during the interview process.
While President Trump and many of his top aides seem to have left the nation’s business behind, largely disappearing from view in the days since Joe Biden’s election was formalized and Trump-inspired violence erupted, one corner of the administration has moved into overdrive.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made near-daily announcements of major foreign policy actions, many of which appear designed to cement Trump priorities and create roadblocks to new directions charted by the incoming Biden team.
Among the barriers put in place are the relisting of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, the designation of Yemen’s Houthi rebels as terrorists, the removal of long-standing restrictions on contacts between senior U.S. officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the long-contested Western Sahara, the fast-track approval of controversial arms sales, and a slew of new sanctions against Iran.
All of those changes can be undone. But each complicates the challenges Biden will face in putting his own stamp on policy.
Biden officials express little doubt that most, if not all, of the moves are motivated by domestic politics. But they have not spoken out against them, in part because of the “one president at a time” tradition regarding U.S. national security interests overseas.
“We’ve taken note of these last-minute maneuvers,” said a senior Biden transition official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the inauguration. Each is being reviewed, the official said, “and the incoming administration will render a verdict based exclusively on one criterion: the national interest.”
