By Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he is directing loyalist Bill Pulte to downsize the top U.S. intelligence office while he looks for a permanent head of the office, an apparent bid to placate lawmakers opposed to Pulte’s interim appointment.
But Trump said he was unwilling to meet a demand to withdraw Pulte by Democrats, whose votes are needed to extend a foreign surveillance program that expires on Friday.
The standoff on Capitol Hill over Trump’s choice of Pulte as acting head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has stalled renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
“I have named William Pulte to be Acting Director of National Intelligence, who will take over on June 19th, and have asked him to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies,” Trump wrote.
“At the same time, I am looking for a permanent ODNI Nominee with experience in National Security.”
Trump called on Congress to send him a short-term extension of Section 702 to provide time to install a permanent director.
Section 702 allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect emails, texts and cellphone data of foreigners believed to be located outside the United States without individual judicial warrants.
All but one Senate Democrat last week voted to block renewal of the warrantless foreign surveillance authority, citing Pulte’s lack of national security experience.
They also cited his use of confidential mortgage data to promote mortgage fraud investigations of several of Trump’s perceived political foes, expressing concern he could do the same with top-secret intelligence.
Seven Republicans also voted against proceeding with renewal of Section 702.
Some of those lawmakers seek greater protections for Americans’ information inadvertently collected when foreigners’ communications are monitored without warrants, while others have long voiced concerns about surveillance programs in general.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Nia Williams)
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