Pre-Election Talk by Former CIA Chief Raised Concerns about Possible Trump Presidency

Michael Morell and Lior Strahilevitz sit at table facing a classroom full of students

Speaking to Law School students on the eve of the election, former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell raised alarms about a potential Donald Trump presidency, spoke candidly about the unprecedented range of national security concerns facing the United States, and shared thoughts on the role that lawyers play in the intelligence agency.

Morell, a 33-year CIA veteran who had never publicly expressed a preference for a presidential candidate before endorsing Hillary Clinton earlier this year, told students that Trump was vulnerable to manipulation by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, a career intelligence officer trained in identifying and exploiting individual weaknesses.  

“World leaders tend to be more narcissistic than your average person, and Donald Trump is the most narcissistic person I have ever seen in my life,” said Morell, who was the CIA’s deputy director between 2010 and 2013 and served twice during that time as the acting director. He now works for a private strategic advisory firm that specializes in foreign policy and national security. “Narcissistic people are easy to manipulate, and Vladimir Putin saw that.” Morell also repeated several criticisms he had made in an August New York Times opinion piece, saying that Trump had shown a lack of respect for the Constitution and often appeared to prefer his own gut sense over well-informed expert advice.

But when a student how asked a high-ranking intelligence official with concerns about Trump’s qualifications and style would handle working for Trump, Morell told her: “If you’re in that job, you have to do your job—you still have a responsibility to serve.”

Students packed the classroom for the Q&A event, which was moderated by Lior Strahilevitz, the Sidley Austin Professor of Law. The wide-ranging discussion struck a number of somber notes: Morell described his experience with President George W. Bush on September 11, 2001, and in the White House Situation Room with President Barack Obama the night Osama bin Laden was killed. He touched on the controversy surrounding FBI Director James B. Comey, ’85, who was criticized for writing to Congress 11 days before the election to say that the FBI was examining new emails in the now-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. He said Comey had made errors in judgment but that he didn’t believe Comey “had any intention of trying to sway the election.”

Morell also talked about the sheer number of front-burner national security issues that the new president will face.

“There have been more dangerous times in our country: the War of 1812, the Civil War, certain parts of the Cold War. But there has never been a time when there have been this many issues,” he said. “And they range from a war in Iraq and Syria, to ISIS terrorism and al-Qaeda terrorism, cyber threats, challenge posed by Russia, challenge posed by China, challenge posed by Iran, the biggest change going on in the Middle East since the end of the Ottoman Empire, drug trafficking, human trafficking—I could just go on and on and on.”

Morell also said that the new administration would have to confront concerns that Russia had tampered in the United States election by stealing and releasing thousands of emails from accounts used by Democratic National Committee staff and the chairman of Clinton’s campaign.

“This is the first time that the United States government has accused another government of trying to interfere in our election,” Morell said. “That’s huge. It’s the heart of our democracy, it’s the heart of who we are.”

Responding to a question from Strahilevitz, Morell also offered insight on the role of lawyers at the CIA.

“They are involved in nearly every decision,” he said. “As acting director and deputy director, I would not make a decision of any consequence without the general counsel in the room. I saw the general counsel not only as the person who provided me with the legal opinion that I was bound to listen to and bound to take on board, but also as a counselor—as a person who provided wisdom. Stephen Preston was the general counsel at CIA when I was there … and Stephen was remarkable at providing both types of advice and making clear when the legal opinion stopped and his professional policy advice started.”

Matt Enloe, ’18, said he appreciated Morell’s candor in talking discussing the election—and was encouraged by his comments about the profession.

“He was so sincere in wanting us to understand the role of lawyers, and in telling us that he values having lawyers’ perspectives on both public policy issues and the law,” Enloe said. “His great respect for lawyers demonstrates not just that lawyers have a variety of perspectives to offer, but also that the CIA is careful in considering its decisions.”