FOR BETTER OR WORSE – According to reporting from MS NOW, (not the president’s favorite network) two Atlanta-based FBI intelligence analysts were dismissed after declining to participate in an investigation into what the president is convinced was voter fraud in the 2020 election. The two analysts reportedly told colleagues that they did not believe the probe met the standards typically required for an FBI inquiry. The analysts, a married couple, were reportedly escorted from the building, which saves them the agony of participating in an investigation that has become a major undertaking, with hundreds of FBI analysts reportedly redirected to support what internal documents describe as a priority mission. Court-approved searches earlier this year resulted in the seizure of hundreds of boxes of ballots and election records, while analysts have allegedly been tasked with running large batches of voter information through databases to verify identities and current addresses. The move is drawing scrutiny from critics who argue that previous federal, state and bipartisan reviews found no evidence of fraud on a scale that would have altered Georgia's 2020 result. The investigation has also prompted concerns on Capitol Hill over the use of FBI resources and the timing of the effort ahead of next year's midterm elections. Do ya think?
SCOLESE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING – After seven years and the second-longest tenure of any National Reconnaissance Office leader, The Hon. Christopher Scolese has left the building. For those looking to score big on trivia night, the NRO is the U.S. Intelligence agency that is responsible for designing, building, launching and operating the nation’s reconnaissance satellites. For bonus points: name its main mission. (Hint: to collect intelligence from space and provide it to organizations like the CIA, NSA, DoD and other three-letter agencies.) Scolese served as the 19th director and was the first to be presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed, earning him the ‘Honorable’ title. Here’s the championship round question: Did you know that the NRO was created in 1961 during the Cold War but remained classified for decades? In which year was its existence officially acknowledged by the U.S. Government? We’re guessing the new Acting Director Bill Adkins probably knows the answer.
FAT LEONARD HUNGRY FOR A PARDON? Leonard Glenn Francis would like to escape serving out his full federal sentence. The former defense contractor pleaded guilty in 2015 to bribing scores of Navy officers with cash, prostitutes, and $1,000-a-head dinners in exchange for classified ship movements. From jail, he has given reporter Craig Whitlock of The Washington Post his first interview in 12 years and it did not disappoint. Francis, widely known as “Fat Leonard,” was awaiting (repeatedly delayed) sentencing under house arrest in 2022 when he cut off his ankle monitor and Ubered across the Mexican border. He left behind an Elvis mannequin in a watchman's hat as a farewell taunt to those who were supposed to be watching him. Fifteen months, three countries, and one rebuffed asylum pitch to the Russians later – including a stop at the Russian consulate in Caracas, (where he said officials didn’t take him seriously enough to even discuss asylum) he was captured and is now back in a federal facility. He reportedly hopes to win a pardon from President Trump by suggesting his conviction was the result of Biden-era prosecutorial misconduct rather than, well, all the bribery. Loyal Cipher Brief readers may recall that Whitlock previously wrote a book on Fat Leonard which earned 3 out of 4 trench coats from our reviewer in 2024. Elvis has left the building – and apparently this prisoner thinks he’s ready to do the same.
DETAILS STILL MATTER: FBI Director Kash Patel dropped a video on X last week claiming 113 foreign spy arrests, a 53% counterintelligence jump, and a 77% surge in the number of cyber indictments. As far as we can tell, the Bureau has not released supporting data explaining how the figures were compiled – or what the baseline even was. That maybe isn’t annoying for someone who only needs headlines to form an opinion, but that’s definitely not the way analysts are paid to think. Patel may have been too busy to link to his sources on this one - as the White House reportedly tapped him to run the leak probe into the New York Times' Air Force One reporting.
THE AGENCY THAT NEVER SLEEPS GETS A NOVEL THAT NEVER ENDS: A writer named William T. Vollmann is about to release "A Table for Fortune," a four-volume, 3000-plus-page series about a CIA analyst named Elliott Stevens who, for some reason, goes by the cover name “Dave.” The story flows from Vietnam through the War on Terror, as well as following the tales of Dave’s drug-addled, homeless son who is wandering America in search of meaning. A New York Times reviewer did the math: if you were to read Vollmann’s voluminous story at a page a minute, that's about 50 hours without breaks — or more than two straight days. When last we checked, Amazon was asking $139.99 for the box set that goes on sale August 25. The list price is $199.00, which works out to a little under five cents a page. The NYT reviewer calls it a "monsterpiece." Don’t expect a review of "A Table for Fortune" in The Cipher Brief anytime soon. It’s tough to find reviewers with that kind of time.
SPY CHIEF TRIMS THE FAT, DECLINES TO SHOW THE RECIPE: Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte announced Friday that his office is carrying out another round of staff reductions, after President Trump spent recent weeks calling to shrink the agency's ranks. In a Friday night tweet Pulte said: "U.S. National Intelligence is operating more efficiently and effectively than ever before," adding that the cuts targeted "redundant, or non-critical, personnel" — without saying how many people that actually meant, or which functions they'd been performing. It's the third such round since Pulte took the acting job, and the messaging has followed a consistent formula each time: announce the trim, praise the resulting efficiency, skip the specifics. Whether the intelligence community is actually leaner and meaner or just quieter is, for now, an open question.
YOU WANT ME TO RIDE WHERE? General Tony Thomas (Ret.), former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command doesn’t seem to have slowed down much in ‘retirement’. To prove the point, he’s riding 406 miles across the state of Iowa this month in the “oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world” according to the organizers. The General’s participation in the RAGBRAI ride, as the cool kids call it, will benefit Special Operations Warrior Foundation and if you have an extra $20 burning a hole in your pocket, here’s how you can show your support for the Special Operations Community and put that money to work – without having to do the heavy pedaling.
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