MUST BE AN ‘ACTING DIRECTOR’ RECORD – The Senate moved quickly this week to confirm John Ratcliffe as the Trump administration’s new CIA Director as the president moved into just his fourth day on the job. By comparison, former President Joe Biden nominated former CIA director Bill Burns as his pick in January 2021 but Burns (who has quietly told his inner circle that being director was the best job he ever had) wasn’t confirmed by the Senate until mid-March of that year. President Trump named an acting CIA director just days earlier – Deputy Director of CIA for Operations Tom Sylvester – who we’re guessing held that role for the shortest time ever on record. President Trump also named Dr. Stacey Dixon as Acting Director of National Intelligence. Dixon has spent the last four years serving as the deputy at ODNI. She may also have a little more time in the acting chair than Sylvester did though because Trump’s nominee for the job, Tulsi Gabbard, continues to face headwinds in the Senate. We’re expecting to find out more about just how serious those headwinds might be when Gabbard’s confirmation hearing kicks off on January 30.
THE NEXT DEPUTY DIRECTOR – With Director Ratcliffe officially on the job, it likely won’t be long before he names a permanent deputy director – traditionally the person who oversees daily operations at the agency. Rumors were still flying as we went to press this week with Mike D’Andrea in the running. D’Andrea is a retired CIA veteran who ran Iran operations and became legendary for his counterterrorism efforts and his ‘gloves off’ approach to developing the agency’s armed drone program. Spies also tell us that retired CIA veteran operations officer Ralph Goff is being considered for the role. The Cipher Brief spoke with Goff – who is a Cipher Brief Expert and spent his career in the field serving as CIA station chief multiple times – to ask what he thought about an overhaul for the U.S. Intelligence Community. One last rumor floating around is that Ratcliffe might not name a permanent replacement until the Senate decides whether or not to confirm Gabbard as DNI – just in case that doesn’t work out.
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