GOP lawmaker asks officials to answer questions on NSA chief
The GOP chairman of a top committee in Congress on Saturday asked the nation's intelligence chief and defense secretary to appear and answer questions about reports that they recommended the ouster of the director of the National Security Agency.
In a statement issued late Saturday, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he sent a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter and National Intelligence Director James Clapper asking them to appear before the committee to "discuss the veracity of press reports" that they recommended the removal of Adm. Mike Rogers, who oversees NSA and the new US Cyber Command.
Nunes referred to a report in The Washington Post, saying that Carter and Clapper wrote a letter to President Barack Obama last month recommending Rogers' removal. It's unclear why they would recommend dismissal. The Defense Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the news report.
Rogers has been mentioned as a candidate for a position in President-elect Donald Trump's administration, an idea that gained traction when Trump met with Rogers, whose tenure at the NSA has been tainted by breaches of classified material from the agency.
