A two-year standoff over a top counterintelligence nomination ended this week after a Senate Republican said the nation’s spy chief and attorney general provided long-sought transparency for congressional investigations.
William Evanina, a former FBI special agent, has led the National Counterintelligence and Security Center since 2014 and in February 2018 was nominated by President Trump to be the first Senate-confirmed director of the center. But since June of that year, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley has blocked the nomination as a form of protest against Department of Justice leadership and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for not providing Congress documents related to the government’s investigation into Russian election interference and Trump’s presidential campaign.
