Following the removal of six people earlier this month, the White House is beginning to rebuild the National Security Council with aides who top officials believe are staunchly aligned with President Trump’s agenda, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
According to sources, Derek Harvey, a retired United States Army colonel and military intelligence analyst, is expected to be named senior director of intelligence.
“Always, we’re letting go of people,” Mr. Trump told reporters about the firings of National Security Adviser Mike Waltz’s aides following the Signal group chat controversy. “People that we don’t like, or people that we don’t think can do the job, or people that may have loyalties to somebody else.”
Havey would succeed Brian Walsh, who was one of four senior directors let go on April 3. In total, six aides were removed.
Retired Lt. Col. Michael Jensen, an Air Force veteran, is also expected to join the NSC, according to one source. Jensen was nominated in February for a top Pentagon position as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. Senior officials recently discussed appointing him as Waltz’s senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs.
That position has been vacant.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster removed Harvey from the NSC due to a disagreement on vision. Harvey oversaw Middle Eastern affairs at the time.
Harvey later worked as a congressional aide for former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican. He previously worked as a senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency and advised retired Gen. David Petraeus, then-commander of US Central Command, as well as retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, former Army vice chief of staff.
House Democrats released phone messages involving Harvey during Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial, which focused on an alleged plan to boost his political prospects by persuading Ukraine to launch investigations into his likely 2020 political challenger, then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Harvey was a vocal Trump supporter during the impeachment proceedings.