A retired CIA officer reportedly working with Blackwater founder Erik Prince to pitch the White House on a global, private spy network which as we reported yesterday would allow the White House to circumvent and counter "deep state enemies" within U.S. intelligence agencies, is said to have made the stunning claim that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster worked with the NSA to perform surveillance on Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Steve Bannon and others, according to a report in The Intercept.

Former CIA agent John R. Maguire and Blackwater founder Erik Prince

The former CIA agent, John R. Maguire - a Trump transition team member who works for intelligence contractor Amyntor Group, spent over two decades as a paramilitary officer - including tours in Central America working with the Contras. After retiring, Maguire hooked up with Blackwater founder Erik Prince in what has been a long and fruitful professional relationship.

While Maguire and Prince deny they are working together on the White House's "private spy network," current and former U.S. officials as well as Trump donors say otherwise, as The Intercept reports:

The former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the efforts scoffed at Prince’s denials. “Erik’s proposal had no company names on the slides,” this person said, “but there is no doubt that Prince and Maguire were working together.”

Prince is reported to have told a top Trump fundraiser that he and Maguire are working together, and the two had been going around to Trump fundraisers to generate support for private military contracting efforts in Afghanistan until a CIA contract materialized for the project.

During these conversations, Maguire told donors that Obama administration holdovers were withholding information from President Trump, and H.R. McMaster - a protégé of former CIA director David Petraeus - authorized a spying operation on members of the Trump family as well as Steve Bannon, and then sent the gathered intel to an international facility owned by George Soros. Via The Intercept:

“[Maguire] said there were people inside the CIA who joined in the previous eight years [under Obama] and inside the government, and they were failing to give the president the intelligence he needed,” said a person who was pitched by Maguire and other Amyntor personnel. To support his claim, Maguire told at least two people that National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, in coordination with a top official at the National Security Agency, authorized surveillance of Steven Bannon and Trump family members, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Adding to these unsubstantiated claims, Maguire told the potential donors he also had evidence McMaster used a burner phone to send information gathered through the surveillance to a facility in Cyprus owned by George Soros.

A potential Donor Maguire spoke with said "John [Maguire] was certain that the deep state was going to kick the president out of office within a year,” adding “These guys said they were protecting the president.”

Given the frequent and ongoing "deep-state" leaks to the MSM designed to undermine Trump, reports of Obama holdovers keeping dozens of national security positions - some say thanks to H.R. McMaster, and advisory team whittled down to Stephen Miller, Jared and Ivanka, it's no secret that at least some, if not all of what is known as the "deep state" has been after Trump since he became a serious threat to Hillary Clinton during the election.