Marc Polymeropoulos, who served 26 years in the CIA before retiring from the agency’s Senior Intelligence Service in June 2019, said the position “traditionally has gone to a senior member of the intelligence community, such as the CIA, the State Department, or NSA. It was an apolitical position, coveted and also seen as highly career advancing.”

Polymeropoulos added that the role is particularly significant given it oversees critical intelligence community functions such as covert action. “Managing the interagency process on covert action as well as advising the national security adviser on this key aspect of American power took finesse and skill,” he said.

Ellis has been in the White House counsel’s office since 2017, and was reportedly one of the White House officials who showed Nunes intelligence reports that led to the congressman’s probe into surveillance of the Trump campaign team.

Ellis also featured in the Ukraine scandal, according to testimony heard by the House Intelligence Committee during the impeachment investigation.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a decorated Army officer who served as the National Security Council’s director for Ukraine, told lawmakers in October that Ellis and Eisenberg were the ones who decided to move the record of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into the NSC’s top-secret codeword system—a server normally used to store highly classified material that only a small group of officials can access.

Vindman was one of the officials who listened to the call, in which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the Bidens and Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election, and went to Eisenberg and Ellis afterward to register his concerns about the conversation. In early February, Vindman and his twin brother Yevgeny were fired from the NSC and sent back to the Pentagon. On Monday, the White House withdrew the nomination of Elaine McCusker, who had questioned the Ukraine aid freeze, to be the Pentagon’s comptroller.

The House Intelligence Committee sought Ellis’ testimony in the impeachment probe in November, but Ellis refused to appear for his scheduled deposition. Ellis was ultimately named in the House’s Articles of Impeachment against Trump, as one of nine administration officials who defied a House subpoena for testimony at Trump’s direction.

Ellis, reached for comment, referred POLITICO to the NSC press shop. An NSC spokesman said they don’t comment on personnel.

Ellis’ new job was previously held by a government career professional detailed to the NSC.