Former GOP operative placed on administrative leave from NSA top lawyer job

Washington — The director of the National Security Agency, who was ordered over the weekend to install a former GOP political operative as the agency's top lawyer, on Wednesday placed that individual on administrative leave, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The NSA director, Gen. Paul Nakasone, placed Michael Ellis, a former Trump White House official, on leave pending an inquiry by the Pentagon inspector general into the circumstances of his selection as NSA general counsel, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.

Nakasone was ordered on Saturday by then acting defense secretary Christopher Miller to install Ellis by 6 p.m. Ellis officially started the job Tuesday.

Ellis, a political appointee at the time, was named to the post in November after a civil service hiring process. But he had not taken up the job, pending completion of administrative requirements and concerns by Nakasone about whether Ellis's selection was consistent with personnel policies that apply to senior career officials in the intelligence community.

Miller's pressure on Nakasone days before the Biden administration was to take over raised eyebrows and further alarmed critics who said Ellis's naming to the general counsel job represented the politicization of a career job at the helm of the nation's largest spy agency.

Critics fearedan effort to "burrow in" or embed a political appointee in a career civil service position as one administration gave way to another.

Ellis's placement on administrative leave was first reported by CBS News.