Former CIA Director James Woolsey quit advising the Trump transition team late Thursday, reportedly over being cut out of senior intelligence planning meetings.
“I’ve been an adviser and felt that I was making a contribution … But I’m not really functioning as an adviser anymore. When I’m on the [television] screen, everybody announces that I’m a former CIA director and that I’m a Trump adviser and I’m really not anymore,” Woolsey said in a CNN interview Thursday.
Woolsey’s dissent seems to stem from his lack of a senior role in intelligence planning meetings, led by Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
Woolsey’s resignation comes amid a brewing battle between President-elect Donald Trump and the intelligence community over purported Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election. Trump’s latest tweets have drawn ire from intelligence officials. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper insinuated that the tweets were “disparagement” in testimony before Congress Thursday.
Woolsey also gave a controversial interview Wednesday admitting that Trump might be “playing” the news media on reports of Russian hacking. The comment likely was not well received within the transition team, and may have contributed to Woolsey’s separation.
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