ABC News: “Current and former national security officials are raising concerns over Attorney General William Barr’s recent decision to remove the head of a Justice Department office that helps ensure federal counterterrorism and counterintelligence activities are legal – and replace him with a political appointee with relatively limited experience. “It’s very alarming,” said Katrina Mulligan, who worked for the Obama administration in several national security roles and then, after President Donald Trump‘s inauguration, joined the Office of Law and Policy in the Justice Department’s National Security Division. For much of the past decade, that little-known office has been led by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Wiegmann, a 23-year career public servant, not a political appointee. But two weeks ago, Wiegmann, 54, was told he is being reassigned and replaced with a political appointee, according to a Justice Department spokesman and sources familiar with the matter…”

See also The New York Times / Opinion – Trump Creates His Own ‘Deep State’ – The director of national intelligence is ending oral briefings with Congress — a significant step toward eroding oversight and expanding executive overreach. By John Sipher. Mr. Sipher, a former chief of station for the C.I.A., worked for more than 27 years in Russia and other parts of Europe and Asia.