CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign in early December after President Trump devised a hasty plan to install loyal Kash Patel, former aide to Deputy Devin Nunes (R-California), as his deputy, according to three senior management officials with direct knowledge of the subject.
Why it matters: The revelation surprised national security officials and nearly exploded the leadership of the most powerful spy agency in the world. Only a series of coincidences – and last-minute interventions by Vice President Mike Pence and White House lawyer Pat Cipollone – prevented this.
Behind the scenes: Trump had spent his last year in office ruminating over Haspel. Some of the president’s most radical allies, including Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, were publicly raising doubts in his mind about Haspel.
- He became suspicious of her and instead wanted a loyal ally at the top of the CIA. But she was not the only national security authority the president wanted to dismiss. Six days after the election, he dismissed Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
- He replaced Esper with counterterrorism chief Chris Miller – and then surprised national security veterans by installing Patel as Miller’s chief of staff. Patel had no military experience and was widely seen as a political mercenary determined to punish opponents of the president’s “Deep State”.
- But Trump told confidants he had bigger plans for Patel: he would expel CIA deputy director Vaughn Bishop, replace him with Patel, and if Haspel resigned in protest, then Patel or another loyal would lead the CIA.
Patel found favor with Trump playing a central role in Republican efforts to counter-schedule Special Lawyer Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia. He was the lead author of a memo in which Nunes accused the Department of Justice and the FBI of abusing surveillance laws as part of a politically motivated effort to overthrow Trump. An inspector general later validated some of the Republican criticisms of the investigation in Russia.
- Trump was also convinced that there were still all sorts of confidential documents spread around the CIA that would harm his enemies – Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, former CIA director John Brennan and others.
- Trump considered Patel as someone he could trust to do whatever he asked, without challenging, walking slowly, questioning his judgment or asking many irritating questions.
- Patel served for four months as principal deputy to Interim Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, was a promoter of terrorism at the DOJ, served on Trump’s National Security Council, worked on the Joint Special Operations Command, and served as a senior officer on the Intelligence Committee of the Chamber.
Patel was traveling in Asia with acting Secretary of Defense Miller when, abruptly, on December 8, Trump summoned him back to Washington.
- The Pentagon refused to answer questions at the time about why Patel was called back. But given the tensions that ran through the building after Trump replaced senior officials with legalists, this has sparked feverish speculation among Pentagon officials.
- Patel had to link through several commercial flights to get back in a hurry. Meanwhile, Trump instructed the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to tell Haspel that he was firing Bishop and replacing him with Patel.
Trump planned to nominate Patel, deputy director of the CIA on December 11 – in fact, the paperwork had already been written to formalize Patel’s appointment. That same day, Haspel decided for the first time in weeks to attend the president’s daily intelligence briefing.
- Reports that she was on the ropes had been spinning for weeks and she was avoiding the West Wing – a hot zone of COVID. During the meeting that day, Haspel deftly reminded Trump of what initially impressed him about her: as Trump used to say, she was tough and good at killing terrorists.
- After the meeting ended and Haspel left the room, Trump asked a small group of his senior advisers what they thought of Haspel. Pence made a full-fledged defense, calling the CIA director a patriot, praising his job performance and trying to reassure Trump that she was protecting him. Cipollone has also repeatedly defended Haspel before the president.
Trump abruptly changed course, deciding to cancel Patel’s installation plan. But there was a flaw: at the end of the hall, in the team leader’s office, Meadows had already told Haspel that Patel would accept Bishop’s position.
- Haspel responded with the harsh aggressiveness for which she was known. She said she would not accept this and would resign before allowing Patel to take a position as her deputy.
- Meadows presented it as a fait accompli, but that was not a decision that Haspel would make without doing anything. And now Trump had changed his mind. Meadows had to swallow his pride and reverse the order.
Driving the news: On Friday, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent electoral turn conspiracy theorist and lawyer Sidney Powell, visited Trump for his last Friday afternoon in the Oval Office.
- Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford took a photo of Lindell’s notes before entering the west wing.
- Among the prescriptions of the pillow businessman for the president was the phrase that drew attention: “Move Kash Patel to the CIA Actuation”.
What they are saying: Patel declined to comment on the president’s plan for early December, but said to Axios, “I want to record that I never met, spoke, saw, texted or communicated with Mike Lindell.”