In the past, it was a courtesy to provide transitional office space and resources for departing defense secretaries.
“Given Mr. Miller’s ability to act in this role, as well as the small number of employees and occupation of the Pentagon and auxiliary offices during Covid-19, we consider it appropriate not to extend this privilege in this case,” said the official. Miller was appointed acting secretary on November 9.
CNN asked the Department of Defense for comment.
The confession – during a press stutter on Thursday on his return from a trip to Nebraska, Tennessee and Colorado – came when the Pentagon said that at least 25,000 National Guard were being deployed in Washington, DC, amid concerns over the security surrounding this week’s inauguration after the deadly US Capitol riot.
Tensions between Biden’s transition and Trump’s political nominees at the Pentagon simmered for weeks, peaking in late December, when the transition team contested suggestions from Pentagon officials who questioned the accuracy of the president-elect’s claim that the Defense Department declined to inform its staff about the massive cyber attack to government agencies and major American technology and accounting companies. Unidentified Pentagon officials basically accused Biden of lying when he was discussing the attack with reporters and said the Department of Defense “doesn’t even tell us about many things”.
Earlier that month, Biden’s transition team said it had not agreed to a two-week break in critical power transfer discussions with Pentagon officials, despite an assertion by the acting defense secretary that both sides agreed on taking that “holiday break.” Tensions came to the attention of the public after Miller said Biden’s new team had agreed to a two-week holiday in the Pentagon’s previously scheduled transition negotiations.
The tense relationship between incoming and outgoing administrations has seen several controversial movements at the last minute.
The National Security Agency said on Sunday that it was installing Trump’s National Security Council member Michael Ellis as its general adviser after Miller ordered NSA director General Paul Nakasone to put loyal Trump on paper. The change is significant because the role of the attorney general in the country’s largest intelligence agency is a civil service position, not a political role, meaning that it can be difficult for the Biden government to remove Ellis. The strategy of trying to install political supporters in career positions is known as “burrowing” in the government.
Miller’s appointment preceded a post-election purge that saw some of the senior Defense Department civilians fired in a matter of days, including defeat-ISIS task force leaders, top Pentagon officials overseeing politics and intelligence and the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, among others. The positions were quickly filled by individuals deemed loyal to Trump.
CNN’s Oren Liebermann, Jeff Zeleny, Sarah Mucha, Jeremy Herb and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
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