Trump Digs in on Bill Pulte To Lead Up National Intelligence, Telling Democrats That He Will Not Negotiate on FISA

President Trump says he won’t reconsider his decision to install Bill Pulte — a loyalist with no national security experience — to serve as the acting Director of National Intelligence even though Democrats are threatening to revolt. Lawmakers say they cannot reauthorize FISA Section 702 with Mr. Pulte in the role. Section 702 is a federal law that allows intelligence agencies to surveil the communications activities of foreign nationals, which many agree is key to stopping potential terrorist attacks. The World Cup, which begins on Thursday, and the 250th Fourth of July celebrations are putting pressure on Capitol Hill to ensure the program is renewed. It will expire at the end of the day on Friday if Congress does not act. Mr. Pulte’s installation complicates that effort. He made a name of himself as a chief pursuer of President Trump’s enemies as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Mr. Pulte was behind the criminal prosecution of New York attorney general Letitita James, the attempt to remove Lisa Cook from her role as a Federal Reserve governor, and the criminal investigation into Senator Adam Schiff. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump insisted Mr. Pulte would be taking over as acting DNI on June 19, despite Democrats’ threats to block a FISA reauthorization. “I always say I’d rather have smart than experienced,” Mr. Trump said, telling reporters that Mr. Pulte is not going to be in the job very long. “He’s going to be there for a short [time] while we pick someone else.” He says his team is interviewing five individuals to be nominated for permanent DNI. When asked about Democrats’ threats to block a FISA reauthorization, he brushed off the criticism of Mr. Pulte. “Something’s gonna happen. We can’t let them extort us,” the president said. “They’ve done it on numerous occasions.”A big concern for Democratic lawmakers is that putting Mr. Pulte in the DNI post for even a few weeks could allow him to access non-public government information about the president’s enemies, as he did with mortgage records which he used to accuse Democrats of fraud. Mr. Trump said just last week that Americans may soon learn more about “rigged elections” thanks to Mr. Pulte’s appointment. “He’s a very smart guy and you may find out some things about the rigged elections, etcetera, etcetera,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Bill Pulte, I think, takes my Democrats in the House [voting to reauthorize] number down to single digits,” the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Jim Himes, said Monday, predicting that he and his colleagues would broadly oppose a reauthorization. He says he would likely vote against reauthorization while Mr. Pulte is the country’s chief spy. “The right thing to do is for the White House to say tonight that Bill Pulte will not be DNI,” Mr. Himes said. Mr. Himes’s big concern — and a concern of many other Democrats and Republicans on the Hill — is that the program has never been allowed to lapse before since its creation in 2008. “We’re gonna test the untested question,” Mr. Himes said, telling reporters that the executive branch can try to run the program through a presidential order, but that it would almost certainly get tied up in the courts. “This is always a thing. We’ve never tested it, and you know, ultimately it’ll get litigated. The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Greg Meeks — who, like Mr. Himes, was one of the 42 House Democrats to vote for reauthorization in April — tells The New York Sun that he would likely not support any reauthorization while Mr. Pulte is in the DNI’s office. “Pulte’s a poison pill for me,” Mr. Meeks tells the Sun. “I thought we were close to being there, because I had said to a number of folks that I thought I would vote for it.” He agrees with Mr. Himes’s assessment that only a handful of Democrats would now be on board with a FISA reauthorization with Mr. Pulte in place, but says dozens would support the bill otherwise. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley, warned in a floor speech this week that allowing FISA Section 702 to lapse is not only a threat to Americans, but to foreign allies as well. “Eighty-seven thousand. That’s how many lives were at risk in August 2024 when Austrian security services thwarted a devastating terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna,” Mr. Grassley said. “Austrian authorities were able to cancel the concerts and apprehend the plotting terrorists, all because U.S. intelligence agencies were able to share critical intelligence gathered under Section 702 authority before the attack occurred.”“Section 702 is our most nimble and effective intelligence collection tool,” he argued.

Trump Digs in on Bill Pulte To Lead Up National Intelligence, Telling Democrats That He Will Not Negotiate on FISA

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