Intel chief Grenell outed Obama holdovers, 'political people'

FPI / May 29, 2020

In just three months as acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell ripped the lid off machinations at top levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI which have confirmed for many observers the existence of the "Deep State".

Grenell, who took several steps to declassify information, including some related to the Obama administration's spying on the 2016 Trump campaign, served as acting DNI until former Rep. John Ratcliffe was sworn in this week.

Grenell says he was subject to the usual rumor and innuendo passed off as legitimate reporting by the major media.

Grenell's fight with the press continued this week "when he went to war with Politico," Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard noted.

Politico had reported that Grenell was taking a top spot in the 2020 Trump campaign.

Politico's Natasha Bertrand, who is also an on-air personality for NBC and MSNBC, tweeted that Grenell was "joining the Trump campaign in a senior role focused on fundraising and strategy."

Grenell responded to the since-deleted-tweet: "Fake news. Do you even check before writing? What has happened to Washington DC media?!"

After Politico doubled down on its story, Grenell tweeted to the leftist outlet's spokesperson: “The entire story isn’t true. And your response is scary — you don’t believe the campaign denial nor mine. But claim you have some anonymous source. Do you realize how ridiculous you sound?”

“Delete the story. It’s false,” Grenell tweeted, adding, “Why isn’t @Twitter fact checking Politico? This story is wrong.”

In a May 27 interview on Mark Levin's radio show, Grenell praised the intelligence officers he worked with and said they were eager for the reforms he was promoting. But, he added, the media and congressional critics proved to be enemies.

“It was the political people and the politicians who were ignoring the problems, and the career people were clamoring for reform,” he said. “An overwhelming majority [of career officials] hate the leaks, they hate the manipulation coming from Congress, they hate how oversight is done through a letter, and then, you don’t talk to anybody about it, and the briefings are ‘gotcha’ briefings. That’s not good,” he told Levin.

Grenell added that Capitol Hill used the intelligence community as a weapon against the administration. For example, he said that lawmakers would seek oversight information in a letter and then leak the letter to the press before it even arrived on his desk.

“It’s a clear message that this is about grandstanding,” he said.

Grenell also indicated that the Obama White House was fully aware of the investigation on alleged and later dismissed Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign. He told Levin: “There is no possible way that it wasn’t known inside the White House and that multiple layers of people knew about this.”

Free Press International