Trump says he direct­ed Pulte to ‘declas­si­fy what­ev­er you want’

Act­ing Direc­tor of Nation­al Intel­li­gence Bill Pulte may be the country’s spy chief for a short time, but he is poised to make an impact, with Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump telling reporters Pulte could “declas­si­fy almost everything.”“Bill is there just for a fair­ly short peri­od of time, but while he’s there, I said, ‘You could declas­si­fy what­ev­er you want,’” Trump told reporters on Wednes­day. “I think Bill will declassify.”Trump nom­i­nat­ed Jay Clay­ton last month to be per­ma­nent direc­tor after con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans expressed con­cerns about Pulte’s lack of nation­al secu­ri­ty expe­ri­ence. Pulte is the Fed­er­al Hous­ing Finance Agency direc­tor and chair­man of Fan­nie Mae and Fred­die Mac.
Trump then told Clay­ton, the U.S. attor­ney for the South­ern Dis­trict of New York, not to attend his Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing before the Sen­ate Intel­li­gence …