The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the president of the United States for consideration of national security,military,and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House,it is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States,and composed of senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials.
The assistant to the president for national security affairs (APNSA),commonly referred to as the national security advisor (NSA),is a senior aide in the Executive Office of the President,based at the West Wing of the White House. The national security advisor serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all national security issues. The national security advisor participates in meetings of the National Security Council (NSC) and usually chairs meetings of the principals committee of the NSC with the secretary of state and secretary of defense. The NSA also sits on the Homeland Security Council (HSC). The national security advisor is supported by NSC staff who produce classified research and briefings for the national security advisor to review and present,either to the NSC or the president. The national security advisor is appointed by the president and does not require confirmation by the United States Senate. An appointment of a three- or four-star general to the role requires Senate confirmation to maintain that rank in the new position.
The President's Daily Brief,sometimes referred to as the President's Daily Briefing or the President's Daily Bulletin,is a top-secret document produced and given each morning to the president of the United States;it is also distributed to a small number of top-level US officials who are approved by the president. It includes highly classified intelligence analysis,information about covert operations,and reports from the most sensitive US sources or those shared by allied intelligence agencies. At the discretion of the president,the PDB may also be provided to the president-elect of the United States,between election day and inauguration,and to former presidents on request.
John Owen Brennan is a former American intelligence officer who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from March 2013 to January 2017. He served as chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama,with the title Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism,and Assistant to the President. Previously,he advised Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 election campaign and presidential transition.
The Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) is an advisory committee established by the United States Congress with the official mandate of promoting the fullest possible public access to a thorough,accurate,and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities. The Board is composed of nine individuals:five appointed by the President of the United States and one each appointed by the Speaker of the House,House Minority Leader,Senate Majority Leader,and Senate Minority Leader. Appointees must be U.S. citizens preeminent in the fields of history,national security,foreign policy,intelligence policy,social science,law,or archives.
Stefan A. Halper is an American foreign policy scholar and retired senior fellow at the University of Cambridge where he is a life fellow at Magdalene College. He served as a White House official in the Nixon,Ford,and Reagan administrations,and was reportedly in charge of the spying operation by the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign that became known as "Debategate". Through his decades of work for the CIA,Halper has had extensive ties to the Bush family. Through his work with Sir Richard Billing Dearlove,he had ties to the British Secret Intelligence Service,MI6.
Richard Higgins was an American counter-terrorism analyst who served as the Director for Strategic Planning of the National Security Council in the Trump administration in 2017. He was removed by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster after warning in a memo of a deep state plot to remove the president.
Michael Thomas Flynn is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th U.S. national security advisor for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration. He resigned in light of reports that he had lied regarding conversations with Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. Flynn's military career included a key role in shaping U.S. counterterrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars,and he was given numerous combat arms,conventional,and special operations senior intelligence assignments. He became the 18th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2012 until his forced retirement from the military in August 2014. During his tenure he gave a lecture on leadership at the Moscow headquarters of the Russian military intelligence directorate GRU,the first American official to be admitted entry to the headquarters.
Derek J. Harvey is a retired US Army Colonel who previously served on the staff of Congressman Devin Nunes,ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Harvey is a former National Security Council (NSC) staffer in President Donald Trump's administration and was the first director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM),having been selected by General David Petraeus in 2009 to lead the new organization. Harvey was the previous senior analytical specialist for Iraq to Petraeus,then Commander,Multi-National Forces-Iraq. After being fired from both USCENTCOM and the NSC,he became a top aide to Republican congressman Devin Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017. While in this role,Harvey worked to leak the name of the Ukraine whistle-blower,causing concern about their safety and legal protections of whistle-blowers. In 2022,Derek Harvey was elected to serve a four year term on the Board of County Commissioners in Washington County,Maryland. His term expires in 2026.
Stephen Brent Slick is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations officer and United States National Security Council official. He is the inaugural director of the Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas at Austin,where he is also a Clinical Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the Bobby R. Inman Chair in Intelligence Studies.
Unmasking by U.S. intelligence agencies typically occurs after the United States conducts eavesdropping or other intelligence gathering aimed at foreigners or foreign agents,and the name of a U.S. citizen or entity is incidentally collected. Intelligence reports are then disseminated within the U.S. government,with such names masked to protect those U.S. citizens from invasion of privacy. The names can subsequently be unmasked upon request by authorized U.S. government officials under certain circumstances. Unmaskings occur thousands of times each year,totaling 10,012 in 2019.
Michael Barry was the Senior Director for Intelligence Programs for the United States National Security Council (NSC) in 2017 and 2018. He succeeded Ezra Cohen-Watnick who left in August 2017. Barry's appointment was well received within the NSC due to having years of experience in government and respect for established protocol,and due to his predecessor Cohen-Watnick's repeated clashes with the CIA,fellow NSC staffers,and Cabinet officials. Barry has been a CIA official and served in the Air Force from 1982 and 1992,including as a special agent in its Air Force Office of Special Investigations and was deployed to Europe. According to his LinkedIn profile,he graduated from Northeastern University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice. Barry was working in Afghanistan with Medecins du Monde in 1992.
Earl G. Matthews is an American government official and attorney who held senior positions within the Department of the Army and at the White House during the administration of President Donald Trump. Matthews was a member of Trump's Department of Defense transition team and was appointed as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense,James N. Mattis on January 20,2017. Matthews was subsequently appointed as the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Army on June 21,2019. He served as Acting General Counsel of the Army from June 21,2017,until James E. McPherson was sworn in as General Counsel on January 2,2018.
This is a chronology of significant events in 2016 and 2017 related to the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies during the Trump presidential transition and the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016,this article begins on November 8 and ends with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20,2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2017,the first and second halves of 2018,the first and second halves of 2019,2020,and 2021.
John A. Eisenberg is an American lawyer who served as a deputy counsel to the President of the United States and legal advisor to the U.S. National Security Council during the first presidency of Donald Trump. He was selected by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Earlier in his career,from 2006 to 2009,he served in the Department of Justice.
Michael Ellis is an American attorney,Republican political operative,and former government official. He is a visiting fellow for law and technology with The Heritage Foundation's Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Ellis previously worked in multiple positions in the George W. Bush administration,for Republican congressman Devin Nunes and the first Trump administration,being called a Donald Trump loyalist. He worked as a legal advisor to the National Security Council and was later appointed as Senior Director for Intelligence for the agency. In December 2021,he became the general counsel for the online video platform Rumble.
Kashyap Pramod "Kash" Patel is an American attorney and former government official. He served as a U.S. National Security Council official,senior advisor to the acting Director of National Intelligence,and chief of staff to the acting United States secretary of defense during the Trump presidency. A member of the Republican Party,Patel previously worked as a senior aide to congressman Devin Nunes when he chaired the House Intelligence Committee. He was previously a federal public defender,a federal prosecutor working on national security cases,and a legal liaison to the United States Armed Forces.
The core White House staff appointments,and most Executive Office of the President officials generally,are not required to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate,with a handful of exceptions. There are about 4,000 positions in the Executive Office of the President.
As part of a large and baseless conspiracy theory,Donald Trump posited that Barack Obama had spied on him,which Trump described as "the biggest political crime in American history,by far." The series of accusations have been nicknamed Obamagate. Obama had served as President of the United States from 2009 until 2017,when Trump succeeded him;Trump served as president until 2021.
