Current and former intelligence officials as well as Republican lawmakers told The New York Times that Bannon and Kushner had at one point considered Feinberg for either director of national intelligence or chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) clandestine service.
The sources also told the paper that the real purpose of the intelligence services review was to introduce Feinberg for a higher position later on.
Feinberg is a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management and a member of Trump’s economic advisory council.
Both Feinberg and the White House refused to comment on the speculations. However, Feinberg has recently told his company's shareholders that he was in talks to join the administration.
The publication came amid The New York Times reports, pointing at phone records and intercepted calls, that members of Trump’s presidential campaign and several associates had multiple contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reported that US intelligence officers were holding back sensitive information from Trump because they were concerned data might be leaked or compromised.
