Lawfare Daily: What's Happening at ODNI?
7/7/202651 min
On today's podcast, Executive Editor Natalie Orpett talks with Lawfare Senior Editor Mike Feinberg and Lawfare Public Service Fellow Julia Curlee about the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, which was created to oversee the intelligence community. But much like the IC itself, the ODNI is somewhat mysterious to the general public—which makes it difficult to tell when something is going wrong. They talk about what ODNI does, why it exists at all, and how recent developments are undermining its mission.
Read more of Mike and Julia’s analysis in their recent article in Lawfare, “Gradually, and Then Suddenly: The Decline and Fall of ODNI.”
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMike Feinberg· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] You do not want the DNI, who has access to all of the nation's secrets, to be put in the position where she is testifying in open court before a criminal defense attorney, whose questions she cannot predict.
Natalie Orpett· Host0:18
It's the Lawfare Podcast. I'm Natalie Orpatt, executive editor of Lawfare, with my colleagues, senior editor Mike Feinberg, and public service fellow Julia Kurly.
Julia Curlee· Guest0:28
The apparatus for selectively declassifying information in order to hurt the president's political enemies and help his allies' election chances in, in the upcoming midterms has already been created.
Natalie Orpett· Host0:42
Today we're talking about the office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, what it does, what inspired Congress to create it in the first place, and why recent developments are undermining its mission. Okay, so Mike and Julia, we're here to talk about what's been going on in the office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is a mouthful and which is why we call it ODNI instead. And you recently wrote a piece for us in Lawfare. But before we get into the substance of what you spoke about there and also just broadly what you're thinking about what's happening right now, I want to start at a very, very zoomed out level, which is to ask each of you to help sort of demystify what we mean by intelligence. This is something, obviously spoiler alert