Biden announced Tuesday that he intends to nominate Thomas Monheim for Senate confirmation as permanent inspector general. The inspector general investigates and verifies all 18 organizations in the intelligence network and reviews whistleblower complaints.
The importance of this role as a non-component watchdog has attracted greater attention during the Trump administration, which has attacked intelligence agencies as a component of a “deep state” determined to dismiss its presidency. Democrats have accused Trump of politicizing intelligence based on his goals and beliefs.
Trump fired Michael Atkinson in April 2020 in what was widely regarded as punishment. Atkinson had sent Congress a complaint that triggered an investigation into Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate then-presidential candidate Biden and his son Hunter. The complaint was pressing and credible, the law required Atkinson to share the complaint with Congress, but it was ignored for weeks through Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
Monheim, then general suggested at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, appointed interim inspector general after Atkinson’s dismissal.
In a statement, current director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, Monheim had “maximum professionalism and integrity. “
“Tom is an option, and the intelligence network will gain great advantages from its unwavering commitment to an independent and objective IQ inspector general in his work,” Haines said.
Charles McCullough, who was inspector general of the intelligence network before Atkinson and the first user to hold office, wrote down Monheim’s record with other intelligence and law enforcement agencies and said it was a “good resolution for them to announce someone from within. “Wednesday’s observation.
Although Monheim has not faced primary public controversy since taking office, McCullough and Atkinson have. McCullough has been dragged into investigations into whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton illegally shared classified data with her private email system. who believed dozens of his emails contained highly classified documents, a Clinton spokesman said he participated in a coordinated leak to damage his presidential campaign.
McCullough said she was informed that if Clinton had beaten Trump in 2016, she would have fired him, but he would nevertheless leave office in early 2017.
“What you do tends to be high-profile. It’s not for the faint of heart,” he said Wednesday. “But any soldier would tell you. “
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