Following Flynn's resignation in February 2017, the new National Security Advisor, H. R. McMaster, attempted to remove Cohen, but he was overruled by Trump.[6] McMaster attempted to replace Cohen with veteran CIA official Linda Weissgold.[12]
The White House announced Cohen's dismissal on August 2, 2017, following policy disagreements with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster over Afghanistan, Iran, and Intelligence Oversight.[17][18][19] According to The Washington Post, Cohen resigned following a power shift under McMaster.[20] Upon Cohen's departure, the White House commented that "General McMaster appreciates the good work accomplished in the NSC's Intelligence directorate under Ezra Cohen's leadership... General McMaster is confident that Ezra will make many further significant contributions to national security in another position in the administration."[21][22]
In late September 2017, Cohen was reportedly succeeded by Michael Barry. [23]
Support for counterintelligence initiatives
In May 2017, Cohen and the FBI assistant director for counterintelligence reportedly advocated for strong law enforcement actions against Chinese government officials conducting operations targeting Chinese dissidents and asylum seekers inside the United States, against objections from Acting Assistant Secretary of StateSusan Thornton. Cohen reportedly charged Thornton with "improperly hindering law-enforcement efforts to address China's repeated violations of U.S. sovereignty and law."[24]
On December 25, 2017, The Washington Post reported that in the weeks before Trump's inauguration, Brett Holmgren, Cohen's predecessor in the Obama White House, briefed Cohen on the actions the Obama Administration had taken to counter Russian active measures. Once on the job, Cohen sent out memos identifying counterintelligence threats, including Russia's, as his top priority, officials said. He convened regular meetings in the White House Situation Room at which he pressed counterintelligence officials in other government agencies, including the CIA, to finalize plans for Russia, including those left behind by the Obama team, according to officials in attendance. By spring, national security adviser H. R. McMaster, senior White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill and Cohen began advocating measures to counter Russian disinformation using covert influence and cyber-operations, according to officials.[25]
Cohen is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, a Republican-leaning patriotic society.[36] He married Rebecca Miller, who served as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department, in November 2016, in a Jewish ceremony.[7][37][38]
Some adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory believed Cohen to be the eponymous "Q", a belief Cohen said he found disturbing.[39] In a January 2021 interview, he criticized the Trump administration for not doing more to delegitimize QAnon.[39]
^Warren, Michael. "McMaster Interviewed CIA Operative to Replace Trump NSC Official". The Weekly Standard. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017. The current NSC official is Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a 30-year-old former intelligence operations officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency who was brought into the Trump White House by the former DIA director, Mike Flynn. Flynn resigned as national security advisor last month. Like Flynn, Cohen-Watnick has been critical of the CIA's perceived politicization during the Obama administration.
^Rosenberg, Matthew; Goldman, Adam (June 2, 2017). "C.I.A. Names New Iran Chief in a Sign of Trump's Hard Line". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 2, 2017. And Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the council's senior director for intelligence—the main White House liaison to intelligence agencies—has told other administration officials that he wants to use American spies to help oust the Iranian government, according to multiple defense and intelligence officials.
