Two senior Homeland Security officials forced out as White House firings widen

Source: Washington Post

National

Two senior Homeland Security officials forced out as White House firings widen

By Nick Miroff and Ellen Nakashima
November 12, 2020 at 11:03 p.m. EST

The White House has forced out two top Department of Homeland Security officials as part of a widening purge of anyone suspected of lacking complete loyalty to President Trump, three people familiar with the removals said Thursday.

Valerie Boyd, the top official for international affairs at DHS, was asked for her resignation, as well as Bryan Ware, a senior policy aide at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The requests came from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office, whose 30-year-old director, John McEntee, has recently intensified efforts to purge appointees who have failed to demonstrate sufficient fealty to the president.

“They’re looking for complete loyalty, and someone with experience serving different administrations is not perceived as sufficiently loyal,” said one person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the moves, referring to Boyd’s previous roles in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. ... Boyd, in a resignation letter obtained by The Washington Post, wrote to DHS acting secretary Chad Wolf that she hopes government officials will “act with honor” during the transition to a new presidency. Boyd declined to comment Thursday.

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Ware declined to comment on the terms of his departure when reached Thursday night, saying: “I’m proud of the work that I did. I’m proud of what the agency accomplished and proud to have had the privilege to serve the country.” ... A White House spokesman declined to comment, as did CISA spokeswoman Sara Sendek. DHS did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

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Joseph Marks contributed to this report.

Nick Miroff
Nick Miroff covers immigration enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for The Washington Post. He was a Post foreign correspondent in Latin America from 2010 to 2017, and has been a staff writer since 2006. Follow https://twitter.com/NickMiroff

Ellen Nakashima
Ellen Nakashima is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering intelligence and national security matters for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 1995 and is based in Washington, D.C. Follow https://twitter.com/nakashimae

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