EZRA COHEN-WATNICK
Senior Director for Intelligence Programs
2017-2017
@EzraACohen
He also spent a few months at Defense!
2 WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS HELPED GIVE NUNES INTELLIGENCE REPORTS
March 30, 2017
That does not appear to be the case. Several current American officials identified the White House officials as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and was previously counsel to Mr. Nunes’s committee. Though neither has been accused of breaking any laws, they do appear to have sought to use intelligence to advance the political goals of the Trump administration.
THE MAN MCMASTER COULDN'T FIRE
July 23, 2017
Whether or not Cohen-Watnick was actually one of Nunes's sources, the public reports tied him to the controversy. They also left the impression that, to defend the president against claims he had leveled unsubstantiated charges of wiretapping against his predecessor, Cohen-Watnick had been prepared to attack the actions of NSC officials and of other elements of the intelligence community. The reports about the Nunes episode suggested to career staffers, perhaps unfairly, that the NSC’s senior director for intelligence was less interested in presenting their views to the president than in imposing the president’s views on them.
FLYNN HOLDOVER COHEN-WATNICK REMOVED FROM NAT'L SECURITY COUNCIL
August 3, 2017
Cohen-Watnick, 31, was hired during the short tenure of Michael Flynn as President Donald Trump's national security adviser. Flynn was dismissed by Trump in February after he misled administration officials, about his prior contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Current national security adviser H.R. McMaster sought to remove Cohen-Watnick from the NSC but was initially dissuaded from doing so by other senior White House advisers.
AIDE OUSTED FROM WHITE HOUSE REAPPEARS AGAIN IN ADMINISTRATION JOB
May 11, 2020
His first was at the White House in 2017 and began during the short-lived tenure of President Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. Mr. Cohen-Watnick did not get along with Mr. Flynn’s successor, H.R. McMaster, and was pushed out.
On Thursday, the Justice Department moved to drop criminal charges against Mr. Flynn for lying to F.B.I. agents about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to Washington.
Perhaps more significant, Mr. Cohen-Watnick was swept up in the tumult of early 2017 when Mr. Trump accused the Obama administration, without evidence, of wiretapping his phones at Trump Tower.
OFFICIAL WHO BACKED FAKE OBAMA WIRETAPPING THEORY PROMOTED TO KEY PENTAGON POST
November 11, 2020
Cohen-Watnick, 34, was forced out of the White House’s National Security Council in 2017 because he worked with Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who admitted to lying to the FBI about the Russian election interference investigation. Cohen-Watnick also worked for Attorney General Jeff Sessions before Trump fired Sessions in 2018. He has been working at the Pentagon since earlier this year.
In 2017, Trump alleged that Obama had him wiretapped in relation to the Russia probe. Cohen-Watnick, then senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, leaked intelligence to then-House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes, R-Calif., about how Trump was surveilled by foreign sources to bolster Trump’s claim.
“Mr. Cohen-Watnick began combing through intelligence reports … in an effort to find evidence that would justify Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts about wiretapping,” The New York Times reported at the time.
COMMENTARY: TRUMP JUST INSTALLED HIS OWN DEEP STATE AT THE PENTAGON. WHAT IS IT UP TO?
November 14, 2020
He’s a protege of Mike Flynn’s. Remember Mike Flynn? Trump’s first of four national security advisers? The one who pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI? Cohen-Watnick, who just turned 34, is a fierce Iran hawk who now has a measure of authority over America’s special-operations forces. He served as senior intelligence director at the National Security Council at the start of the Trump years, and he wanted to use covert action to overthrow Iran.
Cohen-Watnick was one of two White House officials who fed Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the conspiracy theory that Obama spied on Trump’s campaign.
‘ARE YOU QANON?’: ONE TRUMP OFFICIAL’S BRUSH WITH AN INTERNET CULT GONE HORRIBLY WRONG
January 19, 2021
One person who has emerged as a hero of sorts to the QAnon faithful is Flynn, whose tenure as national security adviser lasted a mere 25 days. QAnon backers rallied behind Flynn during his epic battle with prosecutors over false statements he initially admitted making to investigators, and the retired lieutenant general has returned the favor to the group, tweeting out QAnon memes as well as the QAnon slogan: Where we go one, we go all, or the hashtag #WWG1WGA.
Flynn effectively hired Cohen for the Trump White House in 2017. Cohen tried to reach out to Flynn through intermediaries to urge him to stop tweeting and retweeting QAnon content, a source familiar with the situation said. It didn’t work, and Flynn returned to Trump’s orbit in recent weeks as the president sought to overturn his election defeat.