Changes Already Under Way At ODNI

According to The Hill--quoting the NYT--Acting DNI Grennell has already started ousting long time Intel Community officials:

President Trump's new acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, has already made major changes at the agency, including ousting the No. 2 official. 

Former acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and his deputy, Andrew Hallman, resigned on Friday. According to The New York Times, Grenell told Hallman, who has worked for national intelligence and the CIA for three decades, that his service was no longer needed. 

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) praised both Maguire and Hallman for their service after their resignations were announced. 

The Hill's account, Trump's new intel chief makes immediate changes, ousts top official, largely follows the longer NYT article. The NYT article is a concoction of facts and fake narrative put together by the usual suspects: Julian E. Barnes, Adam Goldman, Nicholas Fandos, David E. Sanger, and Maggie Haberman. I got a kick out of this attempted smear of Kash Patel--the third paragraph is precious:

The Grennell Appointment

No need to spend much time on the appointment of Rick Grennell as Acting DNI. Trump has made a move that appears to be aimed at the heart of the Intel Community (IC).

Grennell will not only have access to top leve intel, he'll also have access to material that was used against Trump and can be declassified. Yes, Trump gave full power to declassify to AG Barr, and we haven't seen much. While I'm willing to wait, I do believe that more can be done in terms of transparency. We the People do deserve to get a look at more of the coup plotting than has been revealed, Trump wants it, and I see no reason to believe that there aren't large amounts that could be revealed without harm to either national security or future prosecutions. Yes, the intel services of "allies" would be unhappy, but Americans deserve to know who our "allies" really are. Beyond that, putting names to documents that will be revealed in court at a later date prejudices no one.

Perhaps more importantly, however, Grennell will have access to pretty much everything to do with Impeachment Theater, and he can declassify that, too. Everything internal to the IC that went through the IC IG office--Michael Atkinson--could be declassified. Could this be a backdoor way to reveal Atkinson's House testimony. Yes. And much else. We may be about to learn much more about everyone who had anything to do with the Impeachment Theater and the Ukraine Hoax. And that will inevitably involve upon the Russia Hoax.

I won't say that Grennell and Barr will be in competition, exactly, but I can see no reason whatsoever for Grennell to try to ingratiate himself with anyone in DC except Trump. DNI is a cabinet level post, which places Grennell on a level with Barr. Grennell is in a position to be a powerful ally to the Barr/Durham investigation in terms of breaking through bureaucratic logjams and delaying tactics. Barr should go for it.