Former CIA Director James Woolsey cuts ties with Donald Trump’s transition team amid tensions with intelligence community
Former Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey distanced himself from President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on Thursday evening, a source close to Woolsey told Yahoo News. The move was partially a response to the president-elect’s “attacks” on the intelligence community’s assertion that Russia was behind cyberattacks on Democrats during the election campaign.
Woolsey served as a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, and he continued to make public appearances as a top consultant following the election. Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for Woolsey, issued a statement ending that relationship on Thursday.
“Effective immediately, Ambassador Woolsey is no longer a Senior Advisor to President-Elect Trump or the Transition,” Franks wrote in an email. “He wishes the President-Elect and his Administration great success in their time in office.”
In an interview on Thursday, Woolsey, who led the CIA from 1993 to 1995, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, told CNN’s Erin Burnett he didn’t want to give the wrong impression.
“I didn’t want to fly under false colors,” Woolsey said. “I’m not really functioning as an adviser anymore, and so when I’m on the screen, everybody announces that I’m former CIA director and that I’m a Trump adviser. And I’m really not anymore.”
A source close to Woolsey explained to Yahoo News that the former CIA director wasn’t “comfortable” being identified as a senior adviser to Trump because he was not participating in many of the transition team’s conversations about intelligence issues. The source said Woolsey is “still supportive of Trump,” but “would prefer to not be officially associated.”
“With all the conversations ongoing and he wasn’t involved, it’s hard to be thought of as senior adviser and referred to as such,” the source said of Woolsey. “It didn’t sit well with him. He’s an extremely honest guy.”
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
Although Woolsey was only a senior adviser during the campaign, the source said the Trump transition team “continued to love that he was on television” after the election. The source further suggested Woolsey was “uncomfortable” with multiple events since Trump’s victory in November.
Specifically, the source pointed to the fact Trump has suggested he might limit the power of the director of national intelligence. The source said Woolsey would not support changes to that role without congressional approval.
“The position was created by Congress, and [Woolsey] thinks, if we’re going to restructure things, it has to be at least blessed by a vote of Congress,” the source explained.
The source also said Woolsey “was uncomfortable with the attacks on the intelligence community” that have been made by Trump. Even though officials, including current U.S. Intelligence Director James Clapper, have concluded Russia was behind cyberattacks on Democrats during the presidential campaign, Trump has disputed that claim. In an interview earlier this week, Woolsey contradicted Trump and said he believes Russia was involved in the hacking. The source who spoke to Yahoo News said Woolsey didn’t think it was appropriate for Trump to question the intelligence community’s conclusions about Russia’s role in the campaign cyberattacks.
“Could it be any more clear that Russia was behind what happened in the election?” they asked.
