Maddow Blog-Right-wing influencer allegedly helps oust a National Security Agency leader (again)

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Far-right activist Laura Loomer keeps exercising enormous influence over Team Trump, successfully lobbying for firings across multiple agencies.

Right-wing influencer/conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer has helped oust:
- the NSA director, deputy director, and general counsel
- the FDA’s top vaccine official
- at least one federal prosecutor
- members of the National Security Council

How is this not a scandal? www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-07-30T12:59:34.322Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/right-wing-influencer-allegedly-helps-oust-national-security-agency-le-rcna221902

In early April, the Trump administration took the extraordinary and unprecedented step of firing the National Security Agency’s director and deputy director, seemingly without cause, leading to some awkward questions about who, exactly, was leading the NSA.....

In recent days, it apparently happened again.

The New York Times reported that the NSA’s top lawyer, former general counsel April Falcon Doss, was also removed from her position late last week for an eerily familiar reason:

On July 23, the Daily Wire, a conservative website, wrote about Ms. Doss and her former work for the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Democratic staff. Later that day, Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist, amplified a social media post critical of Ms. Doss that cited the Daily Wire article. In a text message on Tuesday, Ms. Loomer said that she had ‘reposted a tweet that exposed her last week and flagged it for the right people.’

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wasted little time in condemning the developments.

“We should be outraged by the firing of April Doss, a deeply principled public servant, apparently for the role that she played in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan investigation into Russian election interference,” the Virginia senator said in a statement. “Her dismissal appears to be the result of a politically motivated smear campaign driven by a far-right conspiracy theorist, not any legitimate concern about her conduct or qualifications. Undermining experienced, nonpartisan professionals like April weakens our national security and makes it harder to protect the country from real threats.”....

Indeed, the president hasn’t even made much of an effort to deny Loomer’s influence, boasting to reporters last month that the conspiracy theorist is “a very good patriot” who makes “recommendations” he takes seriously.

If there’s a compelling defense for this, I can’t think of it.