House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) hired two National Security Counsel (NSC) aides who worked with the Ukrainian whistleblower while at the NSC during both the Obama and Trump administration, the Washington Examiner reported.
Abigail Grace worked at the NSC from 2016 to 2018 in U.S.-China relations, followed by a short stint at the Center for a New American Security think tank. Schiff tapped her in February to work as an Intelligence Committee staffer to help investigate the Trump White House.
The second aide, Sean Misko, worked as an NSC aide until 2017. He was also part of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policy planning staff under Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan. He joined the Intelligence Committee as a staffer in August, the same month the whistleblower filed his complaint.
A source who spoke to the Washington Examiner had reason to believe both Grace and Misko were untrustworthy (emphasis mine):
A source familiar with Grace's work at the NSC told the Washington Examiner, “Abby Grace had access to executive privilege information, and she has a duty not to disclose that information. She is not authorized to reveal that information.”
The same source said that Misko had not been trusted by Trump appointees. "There were a few times where documents had been signed off for final editing before they go to the national security adviser for signature," the source said. "And he actually went in and made changes after those changes were already finished. So he basically tried to insert, without his boss' approval.
"There were meetings in which he protested very heavily, and next thing you know, there's an article in the paper about the contents of that meeting."
Misko often clashed with other NSC personnel at meetings, another source said. Both Grace and Misko were close to Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser from Feb. 2017 until May 2018.
Misko was a CNAS fellow in 2014. Misko's name surfaced in the Hillary Clinton email controversy when he worked in the State Department during the Obama administration.
In a Dec. 1, 2009, email released by Judicial Watch, Clinton adviser Huma Abedin sent classified information regarding foreign military contributions to the Afghanistan war effort to her private email account. That email originated with Misko, who wrote to Sullivan that he initially “accidentally” sent it on the “high side” (secure) but was sending the email again.
When Grace was initially hired in February, Trump took issue with it, saying Schiff was "stealing" people from the White House to work for the Intelligence Committee.
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