President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Michael Ellis as the top lawyer at the CIA, according to two people familiar with the decision.
Ellis, who is currently on the CIA landing team, held senior legal and intelligence policy roles on Trump’s National Security Council during his first term. Before that, he served as the top lawyer to partisan firebrand Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a close Trump ally who as House Intelligence Committee chair helped fight allegations the then-president’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.
Ellis’ work pushing back against the Trump-Russia investigation for Nunes was viewed as a major plus for incoming CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Trump, according to one of the two people.
“He is viewed by the Trump team as someone who can push back against the deep state,” said the person, who like the other was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the move.
The Trump transition did not reply to a request for comment. Ellis did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
As the CIA’s top lawyer, the general counsel is charged with giving legal advice to the director of the CIA. The position, which requires Senate confirmation, is closely scrutinized because the agency’s spy missions abroad are often with no public oversight. Some of those operations raise vexing legal and ethical questions almost by their very nature.
Ellis is likely to get confirmed — he is well liked by Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee. But prior controversies around him could draw scrutiny in the upper chamber.
He was prevented from taking up a post as general counsel of the NSA at the tail-end of the first Trump administration because of an inspector general probe into potential political influence in his selection. The NSA inspector general later found no evidence of that.
Ellis has separately been accused of improperly disclosing intelligence documents to Nunes while on the National Security Council.
