Trump worshipers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie appointed to Pentagon board

WASHINGTON – Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller fired nine members of the Defense Business Board and replaced them with 11 new appointments on Friday, the latest Pentagon reshuffle aimed at installing Trump loyalists.

Former Trump 2016 campaign officials Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie are among the 11 new members. Bossie was asked in November to lead President Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020. Lewandowski also contributed to those efforts.

Members of the Defense Business Board provide independent advice from a private sector perspective to the Secretary of Defense and Assistant Secretary of Defense and other senior Pentagon officials.

The organization, established in 2002, is a vehicle for representatives of American companies to present new ideas to help senior leaders make management decisions. Appointments are generally held between one and four years. It is not clear whether the new Biden administration would replace any of the members announced on Friday.

“Council members do not receive any compensation,” a defense official told CNBC. “However, council members receive reimbursement for travel expenses and per diems during travel dates for council business,” the official added.

Secretary Miller let nine members of the Defense Council – Michael Bayer, Arnold Punaro, Atul Vashistha, John O’Connor, David Venlet, Paul Dolan, Scott Dorn, David Walker and David Van Slyke – leave because they “occupied of expired positions ”. according to a Pentagon statement.

The Pentagon statement did not include explanatory details on why the Trump administration has decided to remove them from office now, less than 7 weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Trump did not concede the US presidential election to Biden.

“I want to thank each of these members for volunteering their time and talents in the service of the Department of Defense and, in turn, our country,” Miller said in a statement announcing the decision.

Last month, the Pentagon elevated three Trump loyalists to powerful positions a day after Defense Secretary Mark Esper was suddenly fired.

In a lengthy Nov. 10 statement, the Pentagon said Anthony Tata, Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Kash Patel had been promoted to key roles.

Tata, a retired Army general who has become a pro-Trump expert on Fox News, joined the Defense Department earlier this year. Trump had appointed him to a role that required confirmation from the Senate, but lawmakers opposed Tata in the role, and the president instead appointed him to an interim role that did not require confirmation. Tata has a history of Islamophobic comments and has called President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader.”

Cohen-Watnick is set to take over as the new Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, following the resignation of Joseph Kernen.

After being kicked out of the White House in 2017, after working for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Cohen-Watnick joined the Trump administration earlier this year in a Pentagon role. Flynn was fired from his role and ultimately pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Cohen-Watnick also worked for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions before Sessions was fired in 2018.

Kash Patel, member of the National Security Council, replaces Jen Stewart, the Chief of Staff of the Secretary of Defense. Patel was a staff member of Representative Devin Nunes, R-California, who worked to discredit the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia.