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Washington DC:
US President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named loyalist Devin Nunes, who heads his social media platform Truth Social, to serve as chairman of a White House intelligence advisory board.
Mr Nunes is a Republican ex-congressman from California who led the US House intelligence committee during the start of Mr Trump’s first presidential term.
He has accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation of abusing its powers to spy on a Mr Trump election campaign official who had extensive Russian contacts.
Mr Trump said in his post that Nunes will remain the chief executive of Truth Social while leading the advisory panel.
In 2018 while chair of the intelligence committee, Mr Nunes released a controversial memo saying the FBI conspired against Mr Trump when it was probing Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
“Devin will draw on his experience as former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and his key role in exposing the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, to provide me with independent assessments of the effectiveness and propriety of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s activities,” Mr Trump said in a statement.
The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB), created in the mid-20th century, exists to provide an independent source of advice on the effectiveness of the intelligence community’s data and its data acquisition.
Mr Trump described the board as consisting of “distinguished citizens from outside of the Federal Government.”
Later on Saturday, Mr Trump appointed another outspoken loyalist, Richard Grenell, to serve as a presidential envoy for special missions.
“Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea,” Mr Trump said in a statement posted to Truth Social.
Mr Grenell, who served as US ambassador to Germany during Trump’s first term, made history in 2020 as the first openly LGBT US cabinet member when Trump appointed him as acting director of national intelligence.
Mr Grenell had been seen as a contender for secretary of state in Mr Trump’s second term but that job ended up going to Marco Rubio.
The arch-loyalist Mr Grenell, who sought to overturn Mr Trump’s 2020 election loss, appeared with Mr Trump during a meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in September.
The appointments come two weeks after Mr Trump, set to be sworn in as president on January 20, nominated loyalist Kash Patel as FBI director, replacing current director Christopher Wray.
Mr Patel, who Nunes said assisted with the 2018 memo, is a former Pentagon official and advisor for both Mr Nunes and Mr Grenell who is known for his passionate views on the government “deep state.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
