Acting spy chief Richard Grenell’s reign as a prodigious declassifier is set to end with the full Senate poised to vote on the nomination of Rep. John Ratcliffe.
The vote, set for noon on Thursday, appears to be happening sooner than previously expected. The Washington Post reported Tuesday morning that congressional aides believed a vote would likely take place after Memorial Day. But the Associated Press reported Wednesday that Democrats are allowing the process to be completed more expeditiously without procedural hurdles, even as they voice opposition to Ratcliffe’s nomination.
Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany who also took on the role of acting director of national intelligence in February, has roiled Democrats and pleased Republicans by declassifying long-sought-after documents related to investigations into Russian election interference.
Most recently, on Tuesday, the fully declassified version of the email that Obama national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself about an Oval Office discussion on the FBI’s investigation into retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was released to the public.
Grenell reportedly had more that he wished to declassify. Fox News chief White House correspondent Ed Henry reported that a source told him Grenell had “several buckets” of intelligence he wanted to get out that show the Obama administration was trying to “set a narrative.” This comes as President Trump and his allies push an “Obamagate” controversy that questions what former President Barack Obama knew about the Russia investigation and what role he played in it.
It remains to be seen whether Ratcliffe, if confirmed, would continue the trend.
There are outstanding requests from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seeking the declassification of documents related to the inquiry, which Trump has long dubbed a “witch hunt.”
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused Grenell of “selective declassification” for political reasons and asked Grenell on Wednesday for the disclosure of the underlying intelligence reports in which Obama administration officials unmasked Flynn.
Republican senators too have piled on the requests for further declassifications.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sent a letter to Grenell on Tuesday asking him to declassify any unmasking requests made between Trump’s November 2016 victory and his January 2017 inauguration that revealed the identity of anyone in Trump’s orbit appearing in foreign intercepts. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told Grenell they were expanding the scope of their “unmasking” investigation requests to include information as early as January 2016.
In his monthslong tenure, Grenell has made several other significant moves.
He helped declassify dozens of footnotes from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s December report on the FBI’s Russia investigations, which revealed that the bureau was aware that British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s unverified anti-Trump dossier may have been compromised by Russian disinformation and used it anyway.
Grenell has been a particular thorn in the side of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, pressuring the California Democrat to release dozens of witness transcripts from the panel’s investigation on Russian election interference, which showed top Obama national security officials saying they did not have direct evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
Last week, Grenell declassified a National Security Agency document containing a list of Obama administration officials, including former Vice President Joe Biden, who were the authorized recipients of information in response to “unmasking” requests that revealed Flynn’s identity in surveillance intercepts. Before that, he made his concerns about unmasking clear in a directive obtained by the Washington Examiner to the heads of U.S. spy agencies titled “Protecting the Privacy and Civil Liberties of U.S. Persons.”
Grenell has done more than just shed light on the Trump-Russia investigators, restructuring parts of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and making key staffing decisions.
Last week, Grenell said the intelligence community’s top counterintelligence official, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina, would carry out all election security intelligence briefings to 2020 candidates and campaigns instead of the FBI or Department of Homeland Security. The ODNI announced reforms to the National Counterterrorism Center, with the biggest changes occurring within the NCTC’s Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning and its Directorate of Terrorist Identities.
Grenell, the first openly gay Cabinet-level official, also engaged in an effort to review how U.S. intelligence agencies can help advance the Trump administration’s goal of decriminalizing homosexuality worldwide.
President Trump announced that Grenell would be his new acting director of national intelligence on Feb. 19, replacing then-acting head Joseph Maguire, a retired Navy vice admiral whom Trump appointed to the position in August to fill the vacancy left by the last Senate-confirmed spy chief, Dan Coats.
Trump initially nominated Ratcliffe, who proved to be a fierce inquisitor of the federal Russia investigation, to be his DNI last summer. But the Republican congressman from Texas quickly dropped out of consideration after lawmakers questioned his credentials.
The president, however, chose to renominate Ratcliffe in February, and the congressman now appears set to be confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate.
During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Ratcliffe pledged to act independently, although that did not sway Democrats. The Senate Intelligence Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to advance his nomination.
Trump praised his stand-in spy chief Tuesday, saying he believed Grenell will “go down as the all-time great acting, ever, at any position.”
Grenell thanked Trump while championing the intelligence community’s strides toward transparency.
“Greetings from an intel community that is very interested in providing policymakers, everybody around this table, with raw intelligence that is not politicized in any possible way,” he said. “I have heard from hundreds of members of the current intel community who are extremely pleased with transparency of their work, and that’s what they’re shooting for. That’s what they want to provide to policymakers, is information that is not politicized by politicians in any way on any side of the aisle.”
