The United States’ intelligence chief has resigned ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
James Clapper’s turbulent tenure as director of national intelligence was defined by combating whistleblower Edward Snowden’s National Security Agency revelations and defending his own integrity after those disclosures contradicted his statements to Congress.
Clapper, who had clashed with President-elect Donald Trump’s aide Michael Flynn, told a hearing of the House intelligence committee on Wednesday that he had submitted his resignation on Wednesday night and felt “pretty good” about it.
“I’ve got 64 days left and I think I’d have a hard time with my wife with anything past that,” Clapper, a career intelligence officer and air force general, told the committee.
Clapper is only the fourth director of national intelligence, a position nominally atop the 16 intelligence agencies but without significant budgetary or operational authority over them.
The recently created position, created in a 2004 law, waxes and wanes in power with the personality of its occupant.
Clapper, appointed by Barack Obama in 2010 largely on the strength of his relationship with former Defence Secretary Robert Gates, has been perhaps its most forceful - and unquestionably its most controversial.
While the job is formally nonpolitical, Clapper in 2014 played a leading role in firing Flynn from the directorship of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Flynn, a retired US army lieutenant general, became one of the only national security officials of any note to back Donald Trump, and is expected to take a leading role in Trump’s administration, reportedly national security adviser.
“I want to thank you for honorably serving us since the 1960s,” said Adam Schiff, the panel’s top Democrat, who joked that he wanted Clapper to remain for “four years extra”.
Guardian