President Donald Trump’s pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, showed up at his new job a day early on Thursday after asking for a list of every employee in the office so he could assess whether to fire them, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Concerns Over Pulte’s Appointment

There is concern from Democrats — and some Republicans — on Capitol Hill that he is unfit for the job and that he could go further than outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard did in embracing Trump’s grievances in what is supposed to be an apolitical role.

Pulte’s appearance at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Thursday caught staff off-guard, including Gabbard, who was given a brief heads up on the visit. Trump himself has said that Pulte, who is a Trump loyalist with no intelligence experience, would start his job on Friday.

Pulte met with lawyers and staffers during his visit, the sources told CNN. In his only other briefing with ODNI last week, Pulte asked staff if he could bring the President’s Daily Briefing to his house, raising alarm bells among intelligence officials, according to one of the sources.

Pulte’s Background and Priorities

Pulte had also asked for a protective security detail even before starting the job, according to the first source. The episodes, which have not previously been reported, indicate that Pulte feels empowered to begin his tenure as spy chief in an aggressive fashion.

Trump has already given him a mandate to further shrink the intelligence community and pursue the president’s false claims of election fraud. Pulte’s standing in Trump’s eyes grew over the last year when, as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he sent the Justice Department criminal referrals on allegations of mortgage fraud against multiple Democrats who have pushed investigations into Trump.

Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.