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DEFENSE

White House installs a campaign veteran at the CIA

Agency veterans say the amorphous role of retired Army Major General Bert Mizusawa, a political ally of the president, is unusual.

A retired major general who served as a 2016 campaign adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump was quietly installed in a senior advisory role at the CIA earlier this year. The move is spurring discussion among some former agency officials, who say the arrangement is highly unusual.

Bert Mizusawa, a decorated retired Army general and a graduate of West Point and Harvard Law School, has been serving as a senior adviser for national security technology and business integration at the CIA since earlier this year, according to two former agency officials familiar with his role. A current U.S. official said Mizusawa has been working out of the office of the agency’s chief operating officer, Andrew Makridis. Mizusawa’s role at CIA has not been previously reported.

A Trump administration official said Mizusawa was assigned the CIA role earlier this year by John McEntee, the 30-year-old director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office who is responsible for filling thousands of jobs across the federal agencies. McEntee came under scrutiny over the summer for grilling government officials about their loyalty to Trump and commitment to carrying out his agenda.

“There are a number of people in the West Wing, including Johnny McEntee and [retired Lieutenant General] Keith Kellogg, who have respect for him given his credentials and loyalty to the president,” the administration official said of Mizusawa.

CIA Press Secretary Tim Barrett said in a statement that Mizusawa “serves as a senior adviser on national security technology, bringing his deep expertise to CIA’s mission. Any notion that he was ‘installed’ here is ridiculous. He went through the normal process for an outside expert hire.” Mizusawa and the White House did not return requests for comment.

It’s not unusual for the spy agency to be led by political allies of the president. But former officials said it seemed strange for the White House to appoint a former campaign surrogate to serve in a CIA role that wasn’t a “7th floor” position — i.e., director, deputy director, general counsel or other top official housed on the top floor of the agency’s Langley, Va. headquarters.

“An outsider with no internal sponsorship?” said one of the former officials. “That never happens.”

Current and former officials say Mizusawa might have been placed there to generally keep an eye on Director Gina Haspel and the inner workings of the agency. He would be positioned to do that from the office of the COO, who is responsible for managing the CIA on a day-to-day basis, they said.