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Among intelligence professionals, President Trump’s nomination of an inexperienced, partisan politician to oversee America’s spy agencies prompted deep dismay — but also a stolid reaffirmation of the spymaster’s credo: Let’s get on with it.

A summary review of the DOJ and FBI insider group; those who were behind the 2016 election effort to block and then remove Donald Trump from office; reveals they are generally unhappy with ODNI Dan Coats being removed... Their basic disposition is one of anxiety to see Dan Coats being removed; and considerable concern that Representative John Ratcliffe will replace him... (they seem to be) collectively hoping that Coats’ Principal Deputy Director Sue Gordon will replace the director

A top Republican investigator said accountability is coming for any of those individuals who may have committed crimes during the Trump-Russia investigation. With the Justice Department conducting a review of that operation, Rep. John Ratcliffe said during a Fox News interview Sunday that he trusts Attorney General William Barr and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz to provide answers. And while Ratcliffe said he does not want to prematurely accuse any specific person of a crime — as Democrats have done with President Trump — he stressed that it is clear crimes were committed by people during the Obama administration,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats is leaving his job next month, ending a two-year tenure marked by President Donald Trump’s clashes with intelligence officials. Trump announced Coats’ departure on Aug. 15 in a tweet Sunday that thanked Coats for his service. He said he will nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to the post and that he will name an acting official in the coming days. Ratcliffe is a frequent Trump defender who fiercely questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller last week during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Coats often appeared out of step with Trump and...

I am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence. A former U.S. Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves. Dan Coats, the current Director, will be leaving office on August 15th. I would like to thank Dan for his great service to our Country. The Acting Director will be named shortly.

Dan Coats to leave post as director of national intelligence as Trump selects Rep. John Ratcliffe as replacement President Trump on Sunday announced that Texas GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe, a staunch White House ally, will replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence (DNI), following months of speculation and public spats between the president and the intelligence community. "I am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence," Trump wrote. "A former U.S. Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves,"...

(CNN)Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, is expected to step down soon, according to a person familiar with the movement. Texas Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe, who aggressively questioned former special counsel Robert Mueller last week, has been mentioned as a potential replacement, though an official said a final decision hasn't been made.

President Trump is reportedly expected to nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) to replace Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. Axios, citing three people familiar with the president's deliberations, reported on the development on Sunday. The news outlet noted that Trump was especially enthusiastic by Ratcliffe's questioning of former special counsel Robert Mueller during his congressional testimony last week. Ratcliffe denounced some of the findings in Mueller's report during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, saying that it wasn't Mueller's job to "conclusively determine Donald Trump's innocence." "I agree with Chairman Nadler this morning when he said Donald Trump is not above...

<p>Stunning new information just released by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) shows that the Obama administration stepped up efforts – just days before President Trump took office – to undermine Trump and his administration.</p> <p>The ACLJ, where I serve as chief counsel, has obtained records that show the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, under Director James Clapper, eagerly pushed to get new procedures as part of an anti-Trump effort. The procedures increased access to raw signals intelligence before the conclusion of the Obama administration, just days before President Trump was inaugurated.</p>

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats says the nation's spy agencies will provide the Justice Department all appropriate information for its review of intelligence activities related to Russian interference in the 2016 election. President Donald Trump claims his campaign was the victim of "spying" and has given Attorney General William Barr full authority to publicly disclose still-secret information collected during the investigation. Some former intelligence officials and Democrats worry that Barr will cherry-pick intelligence to paint a misleading picture about the roots of the probe.

NEW YORK — Former Vice President Joe Biden was reportedly one of the few Obama administration officials who participated in secretive meetings during the early stages of the Obama-era intelligence community’s initial operations regarding suspected Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. The number of Obama administration officials who were allowed access to the Russia intelligence was also highly limited, The Post reported. At first only four senior officials were involved, and not Biden. Those officials were CIA Directir John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and then-FBI Director James Comey. Their aides were all...

Barr stated: "The thing that’s interesting about this is that this was handled at a very senior level of these departments. It wasn’t handled in the ordinary way that investigations or counterintelligence activities are conducted. It was sort of an ad hoc, small group — and most of these people are no longer with the FBI or the CIA or the other agencies involved." They worked exclusively for two groups of “customers,” officials said. The first was Obama and fewer than 14 senior officials in government. The second was a team of operations specialists at the CIA, NSA and FBI...

Mueller Never Had a Good-Faith Basis to Pursue President Trump Did Deep State Cover Up Chinese Hack of Clinton Email System? Judicial Watch Sues to Find Out What Were Obama’s Spy Chiefs Telling the Media about Trump? Mueller Never Had a Good-Faith Basis to Pursue President Trump The fizzling out of the corrupt Mueller investigation is great victory for the rule of law and our constitutional republic. Here is the statement I issued in response Attorney General Barr’s initial summary of the special counsel’s report. The long, national nightmare is over and President Trump has been vindicated. The corruptly-created...

Dossier-Related Communications Between Clapper and ex-CIA Director John Brennan also Sought(Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch announced today it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seeking records of communications between former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and CNN around the time the Clinton-Democrat National Committee Trump dossier was being pitched to key media outlets. A House report detailed that Clapper leaked information regarding the dossier to CNN in January 2017. The former ODNI chief signed on...

We didn’t get to this yesterday but let’s do it now because it’s one of the funnier bits of spin to come out of Trump’s first two years. A few days ago his intel chiefs went before Congress for a hearing and either contradicted or qualified some of his biggest foreign-policy boasts. Is ISIS defeated? Well, they’ve lost almost all of their territory, said Dan Coats and Gina Haspel, but they still command thousands of fighters and we need to stay on top of the problem. Not a great talking point for Trump’s withdrawal from Syria. How about North...

To manifest his opposition to President Donald Trump's decision to pull all 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria, and half of the 14,000 in Afghanistan, Gen. James Mattis went public and resigned as secretary of defense. Now Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, in public testimony to Congress, has contradicted Trump about the threats that face the nation. Contrary to what the president believes, Coats says, North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons. ISIS remains a serious threat, even if the caliphate has been rolled up. And there is no evidence that Iran, though hostile and aggressive,...

Leading congressional Democrats are looking to stall the process to release documents related to the Russia investigation, which President Donald Trump ordered declassified on Monday. Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mark Warner, sent a letter Tuesday asking Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to provide an “immediate briefing” to the Gang of Eight before declassifying and releasing the documents. The four Democrats expressed “profound alarm” at Trump’s order to declassify the records. Trump ordered the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National...

Showdown? In letter, Pelosi/Schumer/Schiff/Warner order intel agencies to ignore presidential order on declassification until consulting with Congres

At the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency, the President has directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to provide for the immediate declassification of the following materials: (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; and (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications. In...

NEW YORK — Amid reports that President Trump is exploring the possibility of removing security clearances from former top Obama administration officials, it may be instructive to take a closer look at former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s recently released book. Inside the work, titled “Facts and Fears,” Clapper reveals that he feels it is his “duty” to speak out publicly against Trump by writing the book and doing television appearances, especially on CNN where he is a contributor. Clapper lists a litany of anti-Trump charges, and repeatedly makes clear that his public appearances are aimed at countering Trump’s...