Exactly as we thought

How Trump found out about the Russia interference briefing....

Trump learned about Pierson’s remarks from Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the committee’s ranking Republican and a staunch Trump ally, said one person familiar with the matter. Trump’s suspicions of the intelligence community have often been fueled by Nunes, who was with the president in California on Wednesday when he announced on Twitter that Grenell would become the acting director, officials said.

[...]

Trump angrily asked Maguire why he had to learn of what Pierson had said from Nunes and not from his own aides, according to administration officials with knowledge of the meeting. He said that Maguire should not have let the Capitol Hill briefing happen — particularly before he received the briefing — and that he should not have learned about it from a congressman, said one administration official.

  WaPo

That's true, but he has only himself to thank for his aides not being willing to bring him news they know he'll take badly. So his aides don't get fired, but the DNI director does.

By contrast, Grenell appears to be an ideal Trump appointee. The president appreciates that he publicly bashes Germany over policy disagreements. Grenell also defends the president on Fox News and on Twitter, and when he visits the White House for meetings, Trump usually wants to see him, current and former administration officials say.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More on the ODNI briefing fallout

“The Republicans [on the committee] went nuts,” over Pierson’s presentation, the member told The Daily Beast. A second source familiar with the briefing said that Republicans didn’t understand why the Kremlin would try to boost Trump, since he had been so tough on Russia, in their view. Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Will Hurd (R-TX) and Chris Stewart (R-UT)—who according to The Times, has been a Trump favorite to replace Maguire—were particularly vocal in their skepticism, the member said.

[...]

Word of the meeting trickled back to the White House. And in the wake of the briefing, Trump forced out Maguire, whose tenure was set to expire next month. Other major changes are soon to follow. According to several sources, including one former high ranking intelligence official, the DNI’S Principal Executive Andrew Hallman is departing, as is the ODNI’s General Counsel Jason Klitenic. Hallman is returning to the CIA, sources said.

[...]

“Hallman, who is a legend and one of the most honest and truthful and experienced and acknowledged persons in the entire intelligence community system,” said the official, who is in a position to know the coordinating of the effort throughout the intelligence community. “Andrew Hallman is a national treasure.”

[...]

The news of [Richard] Grenell’s forthcoming appointment had been circulated inside the walls of the White House for several days before the official announcement. Grenell was alerted to Trump’s final decision earlier in the week. Still, the announcement came as a surprise to current and former ODNI officials who said they were concerned about Grenell taking over the helm as acting director given his lack of experience in intelligence. One former senior intelligence official said Trump’s decision to tap Grenell was “disrespectful to the intelligence community.”

  Daily Beast

Which is why Trump appointed him.

Our national security intelligence from here on will be whatever Trump says it is

“It’s an essential role. And it calls for someone who can gather unbiased intelligence,” the former official said. “The ambassador was basically shut out of every meeting he had in Germany. He wasn’t respected by anyone. Perhaps he doesn’t understand the role … the importance of establishing intelligence relationships. It requires the person to gather true, unbiased facts of how foreign leaders think.”

[...]

“The president said he didn’t want any more briefings like this,” the former official said. “This is four years of this. We took an oath of office, so help me God. That oath did not include it is okay to lie to the president to make him feel better.”

[...]

“Isn’t that absolutely incredible? Predictable but incredible,” former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said in a phone interview that had been scheduled to discuss the impending Nevada Democratic caucus. “They are doing it again and I don't know if we have the tools to stop it.”

Great.

It will only get worse: What Pierson briefed

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.

The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place. [...] Mr. Trump cited the presence in the briefing of Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who led the impeachment proceedings against him, as a particular irritant.

During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that he has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security.

[...]

[The inteligence officer who presented the information,] Shelby Pierson, is an aide to Mr. Maguire who has a reputation of delivering intelligence in somewhat blunt terms.

[...]

[T]wo administration officials said the timing [of MaGuire's replacement] was coincidental. Mr. Grenell had been in discussions with the administration about taking on new roles, they said, and Mr. Trump had never felt a kinship with Mr. Maguire.

  NYT

It was coincidental. Sure. We're that stupid.

After asking about the briefing that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other agencies gave to the House, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Schiff would “weaponize” the intelligence about Russia’s support for him, according to a person familiar with the briefing. And he was angry that no one had told him sooner about the briefing, the person said.

Maybe some more people need to be fired?

Ms. Pierson, officials said, was delivering the conclusion of multiple intelligence agencies, not her own opinion.

She'll be finding herself on the chopping block no matter.

At the House briefing, Representative Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who has been considered for the director’s post, was among the Republicans who challenged the conclusion about Russia’s support for the president.

[...]

Mr. Stewart declined to discuss the briefing but said that Moscow had no reason to support Mr. Trump. He pointed to the president’s work to confront Iran, a Russian ally, and encourage European energy independence from Moscow. “I’d challenge anyone to give me a real-world argument where Putin would rather have President Trump and not Bernie Sanders,” the nominal Democratic primary front-runner, Mr. Stewart said in an interview.

How about this one: Putin can manipulate Trump, and not Sanders.

Though intelligence officials have previously informed lawmakers that Russia’s interference campaign was ongoing, last week’s briefing did contain what appeared to be new information, including that Russia intends to interfere with the ongoing Democratic primaries as well as the general election.

[...]

While Republicans have long been critical of the Obama administration for not doing enough to track and deter Russian interference in 2016, current and former intelligence officials said the party is at risk of making a similar mistake now. Mr. Trump has been reluctant to even hear about election interference, and Republicans dislike discussing it publicly.

[...]

Both Republicans and Democrats asked the intelligence agencies to hand over the underlying material that prompted their conclusion that Russia again is favoring Mr. Trump’s election.

How soon the House committee might get that information is not clear.

After November.

The aftermath of last week’s briefing prompted some intelligence officials to voice concerns that the White House will dismantle a key election security effort by Dan Coats, the former director of national intelligence: the establishment of an election interference czar. Ms. Pierson has held the post since last summer.

She won't have it much longer.

UPDATE:

UPDATE: More

It will only get worse

President Trump erupted at his acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, in the Oval Office last week over what he perceived as disloyalty by Maguire’s staff, which ruined Maguire’s chances of becoming the permanent intelligence chief, according to people familiar with the matter.

[...]

Maguire had been considered a leading candidate to be nominated for the post of DNI, White House aides had said. But Trump’s opinion shifted last week when he heard from a GOP ally that the intelligence official in charge of election security, who works for Maguire, gave a classified briefing last Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee on 2020 election security.

  WaPo

Unfuckingbelievable.

Pierson, who coordinates the intelligence community’s efforts to gather information on foreign threats to U.S. elections, spoke at a briefing held for the full committee on “election security and foreign interference in the run-up to the 2020 election,” said a committee official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail closed-door proceedings.

[...]

It is unclear what the official, Shelby Pierson, specifically said at the briefing that angered Trump, but the president erroneously believed that she had given information exclusively to Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, and that the information would be helpful to Democrats if it were released. publicly.

[...]

“There was a dressing down” of Maguire, said one individual, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. “That was the catalyst” that led to the sidelining of Maguire in favor of Grenell, the person said.

[...]

“Members on both sides participated, including ranking member [Devin] Nunes, and heard the exact same briefing from experts across the intelligence community,” the committee official said. “No special or separate briefing was provided to one side or to any single member, including the chairman.”

I'd say Nunes was the one who told Trump about it, but that wouldn't explain how Trump got the idea she only told Schiff. That part of the story, I'm willing to bet, is bullshit.

The president has been focused lately on officials who are allegedly disloyal to him, particularly at the Justice Department, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the State Department, aides said, and has heard from outside advisers that “real MAGA people can’t get jobs in the administration.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  The information Pierson provided.

UPDATE 2/21:  Yep, it was Nunes.