Trump's Authoritarian Pick for Intel Director (And how we stop it)

https://indivisible.actionkit.com/mailings/view/126079

TLDR;

Trump has put an unqualified political attack dog atop our intelligence community. Congress must use all its leverage -- including refusing to reauthorize a spying law that’s a key Trump priority -- until this appointment is reversed. Email your Members of Congress now.

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https://act.indivisible.org/sign/remove-trumps-dangerous-national-intelligence-director/




DU'ERS, TAKE ACTION!

President Trump just put right-wing private equity goon Bill Pulte atop the most powerful spy network in the world.

Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence has experience buying up home improvement companies. He definitely knows how to donate big money to the Trump campaign. But he has no experience whatsoever in national security or intelligence. Maybe he’s read a Tom Clancy novel, but we can’t confirm that.

What we do know is the reason Trump would put an obviously unqualified candidate in charge of national intelligence -- during wartime, no less. It all comes down to his last year of service as Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency director (another job he wasn’t qualified for). In the role, he’s reportedly weaponized the vast mortgage data he has access to in order to launch investigations and criminal referrals against Trump’s enemies, including Letitia James and Adam Schiff.

Now Trump has given his political attack dog access to the largest collection of sensitive data on the planet for one reason, and one reason alone: Trump wants Bill Pulte to weaponize our entire intelligence community against political opponents and cultural enemies.

This is another step toward authoritarianism in America. But we’re not powerless here.

Congress has very little authority when it comes to blocking acting directors, but it does have massive amounts of leverage right now, because an intelligence-gathering law is set to expire in nine days without Congressional reauthorization and the Trump regime is obsessed with getting it passed.

You’ve heard us talk about Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before. It allows warrantless surveillance of non-US citizens for national security purposes, but loopholes have been used to spy on US citizens as well. We’re already urging Congress not to pass this law without massive guardrails, but now, given the threat of the Pulte appointment, we’re encouraging Members of Congress to refuse to reauthorize this law -- even with guardrails -- until the Trump regime pulls this dangerous appointment.*

Trump’s appointment of Pulte is dangerous for our national security and our democracy. Demand Congress use all its leverage, including blocking reauthorization of FISA Section 702, until he’s replaced with a qualified intelligence official.

We want to be clear on this: Any Democrat who votes to reauthorize Section 702 right now will be complicit in Trump’s weaponization of intelligence data against Americans. This is one of the most important tests of whether Dems are able to identify the critical fights they need to wage to stem the tide of fascism.

Yes, Trump and some Republicans will claim Democrats are jeopardizing national security by using this leverage. Well, they just put an unqualified hack in charge of the 18 agencies responsible for monitoring threats to our national security. Any Dem that can’t win that debate should probably find other work.

And ultimately, this is not even a partisan fight. Many Republicans are scoffing at this appointment. Will they do something about it? Maybe a few, if we demand it.

Demand your Member of Congress use all available leverage -- including blocking reauthorization of surveillance legislation -- until Trump’s dangerous acting intelligence chief is removed.


In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

*Rest assured, we are not dropping our demands for significant guardrails to correct civil liberty nightmares in Section 702. If Pulte’s appointment is reversed, Congress (especially Dems) should continue to withhold their votes until the law is rewritten to prevent warrantless spying on Americans.


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