RFK Jr. touts former CIA spy daughter-in-law for major role in Trump administration
Fox Kennedy, a former spy who later had her claims about her time at the agency questioned, would serve under former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who nominated Donald Trump as CIA director.
Kennedy, already a controversial candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services, is trying to drum up support for his daughter-in-law. Axios reported.
She would not need Senate confirmation to take the job.
“President-elect Trump has made brilliant decisions at breakneck speed about who will serve in his second administration,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“The remaining decisions will be announced by him as they are made.”
Fox Kennedy is married to Robert F. Kennedy III, with whom she has two children, a daughter named Bobby and a son named Cassius.
Like her former boss and family member, Fox Kennedy has apparently made an about-face against Trump, who she wanted RFK Jr. recently defeated in an interview in late June with NPR.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Pushes for His Former CIA Agent, Presidential Campaign Manager and Daughter-in-Law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy to Become Deputy CIA Director
Kennedy, himself a controversial candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services, is trying to drum up support for his daughter-in-law, Axios reported.
“Many of Mr. Kennedy’s most ardent supporters are supporting him because they sincerely believe he is the only candidate who can beat Donald Trump in this election, and they desperately do not want another four years of the chaos we have all experienced.” , she said. .
Like her father-in-law, Fox Kennedy has courted controversy in the past for her public statements.
She found herself in trouble with the government after DailyMail.com reported in 2018 that she may have published a book about her time in the spy agency before receiving official clearance.
Fox Kennedy advertised Life Undercover: Coming of age at the CIAa book published by Random House. It will be available for purchase from October 15.
The book was described as a ‘riveting memoir’ [that] tells the story of her ten years in the CIA’s most elite clandestine operations unit, where she hunted the world’s most dangerous terrorists in sixteen countries, while marrying and giving birth to a daughter.’
CIA employees must sign a lifetime non-disclosure agreement requiring them to seek approval from the agency’s Publication Review Board for any book or other project that could reveal classified information.
Although Fox Kennedy submitted the manuscript to the CIA board for approval, it is not believed to have been formally approved for publication. NBC News.
Fox Kennedy told NBC News that she has not yet received formal approval for the book, but added that the agency has so far recommended minor changes, which she has agreed to.
Fox Kennedy, a former spy who later questioned claims about her time at the agency, would serve under former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who Donald Trump nominated as CIA director
Fox Kennedy was in trouble with the government after DailyMail.com reported in 2018 that she may have published a book about her time in the spy agency before receiving official clearance
If the CIA requests more redactions, it will be happy to do so, she said.
“They know where to find me,” she said.
“They’ve had copy for over a year, and they’ve never identified a single sentence or section they wanted redacted.”
Aside from questions about the legality of the book’s release, there are also those who say Fox Kennedy’s claims in the memoir may not be accurate.
A number of CIA officers who were aware of the book’s contents say it is unlikely that any particular scene from the memoir happened as described.
The clip in question describes a dramatic encounter Fox claims he had with al Qaeda-linked extremists in the Pakistani city of Karachi.
According to the book, Fox Kennedy met the extremists after learning of an alleged plan to detonate a radiation bomb in Karachi.
She writes that the extremists agreed to stop their colleagues from carrying out the threat after giving one of them clove oil to help treat his young daughter’s asthma.
Fox Kennedy is married to Robert F. Kennedy III, with whom she has two children, a daughter named Bobby and a son named Cassius
More recently, she was blamed for mismanaging her father-in-law’s presidential campaign, which fizzled out before Kennedy ultimately endorsed Trump.
NBC News says four former CIA officers doubt the veracity of the claims. They say the CIA would never send an American case officer alone to meet dangerous jihadists in Pakistan.
Normally, CIA operations involving jihadists in Pakistan are coordinated with Pakistani intelligence services, according to NBC News.
But Fox Kennedy says that while she may have changed some details to protect identities, the events described are largely true.
More recently, she was blamed for mismanaging her father-in-law’s presidential campaign, which fizzled out before Kennedy ultimately endorsed Trump.
Fox Kennedy hired her nanny Brigid Rasmussen as campaign chief of staff, the report said, prompting campaign staff to question her management skills.
“Although Brigid is a nice young woman, she has no idea how to operate in her role and is inexperienced,” one campaign worker noted. “This is just one red flag indicating incompetence.”
Fox Kennedy replaced former Rep. Dennis Kucinich as campaign manager in October, shortly after RFK Jr. decided to end his challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and run for president as an independent.
An aide who resigned in protest complained to Kennedy in a resignation email that campaign management “seriously mismanaged your bid for the White House.”
“I cannot in good conscience lend my talent, time and efforts to an organization that is so amateurish, arrogant and out of touch with the American voter,” the letter said.
The Kennedy campaign referred Dailymail.com to an earlier statement shared to Mediaite in response to the complaints.
“With more than a hundred employees and tens of thousands of volunteers across the country, Team Kennedy has great people who come and go depending on the needs of each phase of the campaign. As the most successful independent campaign of the last thirty years, we wish them nothing but the best,” the statement said.