The former National Security Council senior director for intelligence sought to monitor White House staff communications for leaks or disloyalty to President Trump, according to a report.
Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who now works for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, hoped to develop the technology to collect and analyze phone and other electronic data to identify an “insider threat” starting with NSC staffers held over from the Obama administration, per the Daily Beast.
It is unknown whether Cohen-Watnick succeeded in creating a surveillance program and some of the former NSC officials who spoke to the news outlet questioned whether it was floated simply to intimidate fellow aides given the technical and legal barriers involved.
Mark Zaid, Cohen-Watnick’s attorney, denied that such a program exists and that discussions expanded beyond protecting classified information.
“Ezra worked along with numerous others within the NSC and IC [intelligence community] to facilitate implementation of the Obama Executive Order on insider threats that was issued in the wake of Edward Snowden’s illegal theft and disclosures,” Zaid told the Daily Beast.
