Gabbard installs Trump ally and ‘deep state' critic atop intel analysis hub
The appointment of Nicholas Kass as the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council is the latest sign that Gabbard is seeking to assert greater control over the influential intelligence assessment group, which weighs major national security issues at the behest of top U.S. officials. Though the NIC has long prided itself as operating independently of politics, it has been thrust into a political mudfight in recent months — one that Kass' appointment might do little to allay.
Gabbard set off a firestorm of Democratic criticism last month when she ousted the top two officials at the NIC shortly after it produced a classified assessment that appeared to undercut a key pillar of Trump's hardline immigration policy.
Gabbard subsequently moved the NIC from the CIA to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to better address allegations of politicization, and introduced a more rigorous review process over its work, according to media reports.
The three people — one senior U.S. intelligence official and two former senior U.S. national security officials — were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the move.
Officials in the Trump administration and many Republican national security officials argue that the U.S. intelligence community is injected with left-wing bias and needs reform.
They are likely to see in Kass two key credentials: significant experience inside the U.S. intelligence community and a willingness to challenge a broken status quo.
Kass has written a handful of opinion articles and social media posts expressing intense skepticism of Democrats and a fierce admiration for Trump. In a post on X from November 2024 that Kass has since pinned on his account page, he called Trump's 'epic' victory in the 2024 election 'a thorough public repudiation of the Deep State and its authoritarianism, operations, puppets and supporters, and ideological pretensions and other emanations.'
ODNI declined to comment for this story. However, an ODNI official, granted anonymity to speak freely about the pick, asserted that Kass had distinguished himself during a 30-year career in the intelligence community. An expert on Russia, the Middle East and Europe, Kass has held senior analytic roles at the National Security Council, the NIC, the CIA and the State Department, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Kass did not respond to a request for comment via his LinkedIn.
It was not clear if Kass was being considered to permanently head the office. The position of NIC chair does not require Senate confirmation.
Concern over the NIC exploded this April after the Washington Post reported it had found in a classified assessment that the government of Nicolas Maduro was not directing the invasion of a Venezuelan criminal gang inside the U.S. That idea had served as the key legal justification for the Trump administration's policy of deporting suspected gang members without due process.
Emails later leaked to the press suggesting Gabbard's chief of staff, Joe Kent, had even pushed NIC officials to change their analysis, alarming Democrats further.
ODNI officials countered that the NIC's then-acting chair, Michael Collins, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, were themselves biased. They also released more details of the email correspondence between Kent and Collins to buttress their case that Kent's prodding did not cross any lines.
Since leaving government four years ago, Kass has worked as a private consultant, the executive director of a small family office, and a senior fellow at the Center for the National Interest, according to his LinkedIn.
Though Kass brings deep government experience to the job, he does not appear to have much background in two national security issues Trump officials say they want to prioritize: China, and transnational organized crime.
Gabbard, who has recently had a tense relationship with Trump, has a history of making controversial personnel moves. Earlier this year, she had to pull her pick for a senior intelligence role at ODNI over the candidate's prior criticism of Israel.
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