https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/...ice-department-national-security-adviser.html
Aide Ousted From White House Reemerges
at Justice Dept.
By ADAM GOLDMAN APRIL 11, 2018
WASHINGTON — A former American intelligence official who came under intense
scrutiny during a stint at the White House last year is returning to government as the
national security adviser to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to a person
familiar with the decision.
The official, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, will play an important role at the Justice
Department, advising Mr. Sessions on counterintelligence and counterterrorism.
Mr. Cohen-Watnick is known to be hawkish on Russia and China, believing the
intelligence community needs to take a more aggressive approach in countering their
activities. Both countries conduct wide-ranging espionage in the United States that
targets commercial and government secrets. Mr. Sessions is broadly viewed in the
Justice Department as lacking expertise in the area.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Mr. Cohen-Watnick, 31, served briefly at the start of the Trump administration
as the senior director for intelligence for the National Security Council, overseeing
covert action and other intelligence programs. He was brought on by Michael T.
Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser. But some former officials
criticized Mr. Cohen-Watnick, a former clandestine officer in the Defense
Intelligence Agency, as too young for the job, which is usually filled by C.I.A.
veterans.
Mr. Cohen-Watnick was ousted in August 2017 as part of changes in the White
House, one of several appointees of Mr. Flynn who were removed by his
replacement, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.
National Security Council aides usually draw little public scrutiny, but Mr.
Cohen-Watnick was swept up in the tumult of early 2017 when Mr. Trump accused
the previous administration, without evidence, of wiretapping his phones at Trump
Tower.
Mr. Trump’s allegations were bolstered by Representative Devin Nunes of California,
the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who said he had
evidence that Mr. Trump’s communications were incidentally swept up in
surveillance of foreigners by American spy agencies.
Mr. Nunes did not divulge the sources of this information, but American
officials later told The New York Times that Mr. Cohen-Watnick, at the instruction of
two senior White House officials, helped print intelligence reports that later served
as Mr. Nunes’s proof.
The revelation showed that Mr. Nunes and one of the aides, Michael Ellis, a
lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office,
were using intelligence to advance
political goals. It also undercut Mr. Nunes’s claims that his information came from
whistle-blowers, and revealed that he was eager to aid the Trump administration
when he was conducting what was supposed to be an independent investigation of
Russian election meddling.
Mr. Cohen-Watnick did not provide the intelligence reports to Mr. Nunes.
The episode prompted Mr. Nunes to recuse himself from the committee’s
inquiry, which devolved into partisan bickering and has effectively ended.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ec10f30fb0406a5a12341/?utm_term=.d377f9c363ec
The Daily 202: Paul Ryan’s party is over
By James Hohmann April 12
-- Trump personally ordered DOJ to hire former White House aide Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who was forced out of his job in August following reports he improperly showed classified documents to Nunes. Bloomberg News's Chris Strohm and Jennifer Jacobs report:
“Trump had thought Cohen-Watnick began working at the Justice Department in the fall, but a confidant told the president during a recent phone call that he was not ... Trump was displeased, and told staff to make it clear he wanted Cohen-Watnick on the job as soon as possible. Cohen-Watnick was recently asked again to join the Justice Department and accepted ... His rehiring drew criticism from Democrats, who speculated Cohen-Watnick may attempt to interfere in [Mueller’s investigation].”
