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Dead Drop: May 25

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STANDING UP FOR GINA – For a variety of reasons, Monday’s swearing in ceremony for new CIA Director Gina Haspel was a remarkable affair.  Setting aside, for a moment, the historical import of the first woman to lead the Agency, the event was notable simple for the way it was staged.  According to Dead Drop sources, the Presidential lectern was set up in the hallway steps above the iconic main lobby with its CIA seal and Memorial Wall.  Down the hallway, to the left and right of the lectern, were several hundred seats for distinguished visitors, senior CIA officials, and the like.  Standing in the lobby, in front and below the makeshift stage, were several hundred Agency employees.  Behind the CIA workers, was a platform for the White House press travel pool.  Visitors speculated that the unusual set up was designed both to cram in a large crowd and to avoid repeating the image of the President standing before the Memorial Wall, which resulted in some unfavorable coverage following his January 21, 2017 visit to Langley. The logistics ensured that the press coverage focused only on those on stage – the President, VP, Secretary of State Pompeo and Haspel.  The media were unable to see the invited guests – and were instructed not to take shots of CIA employees before them – some of whom are under cover – as Haspel herself was until about 16 months ago. Observers breathed a sigh of relief when the President largely passed up opportunities to say anything overly political in his remarks (except perhaps when he described House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes as “a very courageous man.”) The day was Haspel’s, however.  The new director was greeted with loud cheers from the Agency employees standing before her.  The Dead Drop hears that a limited number of tickets to the event were offered to the workforce the previous Friday afternoon and were all snapped up within minutes of being made available. One minor glitch, though.  Someone forgot to put in the president’s remarks the words: “Please be seated.”  As a result, the audience members who were lucky enough to have seats and were standing for the national anthem and invocation – were still standing when Trump was introduced – remained standing for the entirety of Trump’s remarks, and the swearing-in by the Veep, and Haspel’s relatively short speech.

SPOTTED AT LANGLEY: In addition to Trump, Pence and Pompeo, there was an unusually large contingent of other senior administration officials present for the swearing-in.  Most of them were out of camera range due to the previously mentioned stagecraft.  But our spies tell us that those in attendance included: Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Secretary of Education Rick Perry, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, VA Secretary nominee Robert Wilkie, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Advisor John Bolton, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short and a large contingent of unrecognizable White House staffers.

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