Trump names hand-picked panel to supervise, investigate intelligence community
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/trump-names-hand-picked-panel-to-supervise-investigate-intelligence-community
New appointees to the board include Oracle CEO Safra Ada Catz; former Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; former White House economic adviser Jeremy Katz; Goldman Sachs managing director and University of Virginia adjunct law professor James Donovan; former CIA and FBI counterterrorism official Kevin E. Hulbert; and a New Jersey resident named David Robertson.
The new members join board chairman Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire hedge fund manager and military contractor appointed by Trump in May, and vice-chairwoman Samantha Ravich, appointed in August. The board historically has had a small staff and office space in the New Executive Office Building near the White House. Members have security clearances and generally meet quarterly.
Desch said the new appointments "look pretty typical" for the board, with a wide variety of professional backgrounds.
Attorney Roel Campos, who served as a member of the board during former President Barack Obama's first term, said he was unfamiliar with new appointees, but that "the board is essentially the tool of the president," with historically wide-ranging influence.
“Each president essentially uses the board to his needs and liking," Campos said. "Bottom line, it all depends on President Trump and how he plans to use the PIAB. … The board, to have any influence at all, has to have the full support of the president, then the board has tremendous influence and power."
Campos doesn't believe the board is well-suited to investigate Trump's claims of 2016 surveillance abuses, which center on secret surveillance orders against former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page, saying it would be outside of the historical norms of the board's work.
"If they are happy to do it, they can issue reports and take positions and they will be measured by the strength of their analysis," he said. "If he wants something to sway public opinion he would have to have a group of people on the surface objective."
But Campos added that the board hasn't always followed the president's wishes. Former President George W. Bush dissolved his board midway through his presidency after members objected to the use of interrogation tactics that critics consider torture, he said.