https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/...rid=176232
When nobody else trusted the guy, McMaster gave him everything.
"...Another former NSC official told the Washington Examiner: "He was a principal suspect in the leak of the first transcripts that came out on Mexico and Australia [in August 2017]. We couldn't get McMaster to run the tapes and find out who it was."
The first former official said: "I was stunned to find out that McMaster got him to be his special assistant, where he saw everything."
Ciaramella’s desk in the NSC suite in the White House’s West Wing gave him access to all types of NSC paperwork and a view of who walked in and out. “He would have seen all of the paperwork that went in from McMaster — all the paperwork that went into the president. He just would have seen everything,” that official added.
When asked about why Ciaramella was there, another official said he was “just temporarily filling in.” Ciaramella stayed on as McMaster's aide until he left the NSC. McMaster, who was criticized for not preventing leaks from the NSC, left his post in April 2018.
McMaster defended Obama administration NSC officials who stayed on into Trump’s first term, arguing that they would follow policy. “He was very angry that [Steve] Bannon and various other people were saying, ‘We don't want holdovers.' And when he had his first all-hands meeting, he said, ‘There is no such thing as holdovers,’” said the first official.
“His whole thing was professionals are perfectly capable of taking orders from the top, and they change when a president changes. I always thought that was exceedingly naive, given the open hostility and the open pledges of resistance … everything leaked. I mean, the president would have a phone call. It leaked the next day.....""
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McMaster gave Ciaramella access to everything.
