Former Nunes Aide is Trump's Nominee for Inspector General of Intelligence Community
President Donald Trump has nominated a former Nunes aide to replace Michael Atkinson as Inspector General of the Community Intelligence on Wednesday, September 24.
Last April, Trump had removed Atkinson over what the president calls his mishandling of a whistleblower's complaint that prompted the impeachment proceedings against him.
He has now nominated Allen Robert Souza, a senior intelligence official on the National Security Council staff, to succeed Atkinson.
Prior to that, Souza had served as an intelligence staff of Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California.
Nunes is one of Trump's fiercest supporters on Capitol Hill, one of his top congressional allies.
Souza, the former Nunes aide, is just waiting to receive a confirmation hearing and a vote from the Senate to be confirmed as the new inspector general.
Right after Trump announced his nominee, Souza's nomination was immediately sent to the Senate by the White House.
After Trump fired Atkinson last April, serving as the acting intelligence community inspector general is Thomas Monheim.
Atkinson and Trump had a falling out after the former had sought to corroborate a whistleblower's complaint.
The whistleblower, a C.I.A, had raised concerns about the president's phone conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in July of 2019.
This prompted a House inquiry and the impeachment proceedings against Trump in December 2019.
Trump was eventually impeached by the Congress; however, the Republican-led Senate acquitted him in February.
Trump then dismissed Atkinson and several inspectors general, or other officials deemed insufficiently loyal.
The president then denied the Republicans' request for more information on the removal of inspector generals.
Pat Cipollone, White House counsel, replied to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley's query about the removals saying that the president has exercised his constitutional right and duty to remove an inspector general with whom he had lost confidence in.
Cipollone added that both Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama had done the same when they became presidents of the United States.
The inspector general is meant to be an apolitical watchdog of the U.S.'s spy agencies, but with the appointment of a former Nunes aide to the position, it will likely be seen as politicizing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
It is probably because Nunes has helped place members of his staff in key national security and intelligence jobs in President Trump's administration.
However, the former Nunes aide is seen as someone having deep ideologies as he was part of the investigation into the Russian influence during the 2016 election. Critics have mainly viewed that as a plot by the liberals to undermine Trump.
Concerns have been raised with Souza's announcement as a nominee mainly because he was a former Nunes aide.
They have questioned his qualifications and noted that his being a former Nunes aide was troubling.
Another had called Souza as an intelligence community insider who has the reputation of being an NSA guy on Nunes staff.
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